said on Wednesday Khmer Rouge leaders should be put on trial and parliament could later decide if they are to be granted pardons or not. Former premier Ranariddh said his father, constitutional monarch King Norodom Sihanouk, also wanted to see Khmer Rouge leaders put on trial. "I think we should set up a court and His Majesty supports this position," Ranariddh told reporters. "It`s up to the supreme national bodies, the National Assembly and the Senate, to decide whether to grant amnesties or not but there must be a trial," he said. Two

leaders of the communist group which ruled for more than three years in the 1970s surrendered late last month, forcing the government to focus on the sensitive issue of what should be done with them. An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of disease, starvation or as a result of hard labour during the group`s 1975-79 "killing fields" rule. Prime Minister Hun Sen, a junior

Khmer Rouge officer before he broke away from the group in 1977, initially said his government`s priority was national reconciliation. But his apparent reluctance to see leaders of the notorious group put on trial sparked howls of indignation from human rights groups and some governments and he later said it was up to the courts to decide on the matter. Ranariddh said any decision on the fate of Khmer Rouge leaders should await the findings of a team of U.N.-appointed jurists. The team, led by Sir Ninian Stephen, who presided over the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, is drawing up proposals for legal action that will be presented to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan early next month. Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are staying in an old guerrilla zone in the west of the country run by former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary who defected to the government in 1996 and was granted partial autonomy in the area. The group`s paramount leader Pol Pot died in a rebel zone in northern Cambodia in April last year.