LONDON, July 2: Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Friday said that she was confident of clearing her name over corruption charges and refused to rule out a return to politics in her homeland.

"I can clear my name, I have done no wrong," Ms Benazir, who lives in self-exile in London, told Sky News. A magistrate in Switzerland formally charged her with aggravated money laundering at a hearing on Wednesday, marking a step up from the simple money laundering case first opened in 1997.

"I am one of those people who believes justice always triumphs," Ms Benazir, who faces five years in jail if found guilty of the new charge, said on Friday. "Justice may be delayed but it cannot be denied, so I am an optimist. Irrespective of what happens in Geneva there is a case in Pakistan for a government that understands the people, understands the problems of poverty and brings internal stability.

"That's gone since I left office and people do yearn for the return of the PPP (Pakistan People's Party)," she said. A Geneva magistrate ruled by decree in July 2003 that Ms Benazir, her husband Asif Ali Zardari and their lawyer Jens Schlegelmilch were guilty of laundering 11.7 million dollars through Swiss bank accounts and handed down a six-month suspended jail sentence.

The sentence was overturned automatically through an appeal and led to a re-examination of the case under the current procedure. Zardari has been in jail on separate corruption charges since his wife's second term as premier ended in 1996. -AFP