Cambodia's Prince Norodom Ranariddh called for the...

Cambodia's Prince Norodom Ranariddh called for the United Nations to return to talks on setting up a genocide tribunal for the leaders of country's brutal 1970s Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" regime.
Ranariddh, who is president of the country's parliament and heads the Royalist Funcinpec Party - part of the ruling coalition - said the U.N. must return to ensure the trial met international standards.
"If (we) want the process to move forward it needs only the United Nations to change its decision," Ranariddh told reporters outside parliament. The U.N. pulled out of almost five years of negotiations to set up a joint tribunal in February claiming the court envisaged by Phnom Penh would not be impartial.
The move stunned many Cambodians and was greeted with dismay by foreign diplomats, who have urged the U.N. to return to talks. Supporters of the U.N. position say the current Cambodian government - members of which have past links to the Khmer Rouge - cannot be trusted to hold a fair trial. Defenders of Cambodia say the U.N. negotiating team was too distrustful of Phnom Penh's intentions regarding a trial.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998 but several of his chief lieutenants live in quiet retirement in former communist enclaves near the Thai border. Historians and genocide researchers fear the ageing leaders of the regime will pass away before a trial is convened.
An estimated 1.7 million people died of disease, starvation, forced labour and execution during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime.