DHAKA: Bangladesh’s two major parties announced on Wednesday that they would boycott key talks organised by the interim government to bring democracy back to the country with polls later this year.

The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) refused to join the discussions, their spokesmen said, due to both their leaders — Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Khaleda Zia — being held on graft charges.

“We are not going to join the dialogue with the government with our leader detained over false and fabricated corruption charges,” said senior League leader Amir Hossain Amu said.

“It is a unanimous decision of the party. We will join the talks only after she is freed from jail.” A spokesman of the main faction of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party said the party would also decline to participate in the talks.

“The dialogue will be not meaningful and the forthcoming elections not acceptable without the presence of Begum Khaleda Zia. There is no reason to think that we will join this dialogue,” said BNP spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan.

Bangladesh’s military-backed government opened talks with political parties last week as part of a process to restore democracy. It has already held talks with several smaller parties.

The government, which took office in January last year following months of political turmoil, has pledged new elections in December 2008 and said talks with parties would build a crucial consensus for political reform.

The Awami League, which ruled the country between 1996-2001 and was the main opposition to the BNP in the next five years, plans to hold protests next week on behalf of Sheikh Hasina.

Under an anti-graft drive launched in 2007, the government has arrested and jailed over 150 high-profile politicians, with scores of ex-ministers and lawmakers, mostly from BNP, jailed for between three and 20 years.

The boycotts come as US ambassador to Bangladesh James Moriarty met two ministers of the interim government and urged it and the political parties to come to a deal ahead of the December elections.

“I hope that in the coming weeks or months compromises will get this country towards a successful elections,” Moriarty said after the meetings.—AFP