DHAKA, April 12: Bangladesh's main opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, said on Monday she would not back down on her April 30 deadline for the government to go.

The Awami League party says the ruling coalition has failed to tackle crime and corruption and should step down by the end of the month, two years ahead of the next scheduled election.

"The people have shown over the past weeks across Bangladesh that they want this government to go," Ms Wajed said at the Awami League party headquarters, referring to a series of general strikes imposed by the opposition.

"If the government does not quit by the April 30 deadline, the political situation will turn critical, forcing it to flee," she said. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led four-party Islamic-alliance government, meanwhile, has branded the opposition call for its resignation "insane politics" and vowed to serve out its five-year term which ends in 2006.

It holds a two-thirds parliamentary majority. The Awami League has not said how it would force the government to resign but has said it will stage a series of demonstrations in the coming days, including a nationwide human chain on Thursday.

The government has said it plans a counter-campaign against the opposition drive to push it from office. The Awami League accuses the government of failing to tackle rampant crime and corruption. The government, however, says it inherited a bad law-and-order situation from the previous Awami League government. -AFP