PHNOM PENH March 15 Kyodo In the ...

PHNOM PENH March 15 Kyodo

In the first circular of restarted negotiations, Cambodia and UN negotiators failed Friday to get the upper hand of key differences in setting up an internationally backed genocide court for former Khmer Rouge leaders, sources bring to a period to the meeting said Saturday.

The main difference remains which side will claim the majority of connoisseurs on the special court, the so-called extraordinary chambers, according to the sources.

However, chief UN negotiator Hans Corell said after the six-hour meeting that the pair sides made headway.

The negotiations will take back Sunday. The six-member U.N. delegation that l on Corell is slated to leave for recently made known York on Monday evening.

The UN team arrived in Cambodia onward Thursday seeking to possibly finalize the negotiations forward setting up the tribunal for bringing surviving former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the late 1970s

In December last year, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution urging UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to restart the negotiations and to report in succession the result of the negotiations at next Tuesday.

The proces hit a snag in February last year when Annan decided to chance out of talks that began in 1997 saying the trial as planned by dint of Cambodia would not guarantee the independence, impartiality and objectivity that a court established with the support of the UN must have.

single two senior Khmer Rouge figures are in custody -- former military commander Ta Mok and Kaing Khek Ieu, better known as Duch who ran a Khmer Rouge torture and interrogation center in Phnom Penh

Three top former Khmer Rouge leaders -- Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea -- live freely within Cambodia.

Khmer Rouge suprem leader Pol cup died in 1998, while Ke Pauk, a powerful Khmer Rouge commander who was in charge of northeast Cambodia during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime, died last year.

The Khmer Rouge has been blamed for the deaths of at least 17 million Cambodians during its reign of terror.

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