Musharraf told by summit to embrace democracy

Commonwealth leaders have set a two-year deadline for the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, a US and British ally in the "war on terror", to relinquish his role of army commander or risk being thrown out of the organisation for a second time.

In a tough statement winding up three days of closed-door talks in Malta, the 53 leaders also agreed that international co-operation to combat terrorism "must be conducted in conformity with international laws".

Britain and Australia have imposed controversial anti-terror laws, and there are suspicions that British authorities may be aware of US flights to detain terror suspects in secret sites in Europe. But the Commonwealth secretary general, Don McKinnon, said the heads of government had not singled out any country in their "broad debate" on the issue.

On Pakistan, the heads of government noted in their statement "that the holding by the same person of the offices of head of state and chief of army staff is incompatible with the basic principles of democracy and the spirit of the Harare Commonwealth principles.

"Heads of government urged Pakistan to resolve this issue as early as possible, and not beyond the end of the current presidential term in 2007 at the latest."

African leaders insisted on holding President Musharraf to account for failing to live up to an earlier promise to abandon his military uniform.

According to diplomats, the African delegates pointed out that Zimbabwe, with an elected president, had been suspended from the Commonwealth in 2003, while Pakistan was readmitted in 2004 following suspension, despite President Musharraf's failure to live up to his commitments.

However, Mr McKinnon, a former New Zealand foreign minister, said General Musharraf had told him that the issue "would resolve itself by the time of the presidential elections in 2007, when he wasn't likely to be a candidate for the presidency. And if he were a candidate for the presidency, he wouldn't be the general of the army as well. So there is expectation that he will do that."

With much attention focused on global trade talks in Hong Kong next month, the bulk of the Commonwealth discussions were taken up by trade, and concern was expressed about the European Union's announcement of a 37 per cent cut in sugar prices, which it is feared will destroy the economies of some Caribbean and African countries. In a forthright statement on Saturday night, the leaders demanded that "the European Union and others who maintain high levels of agricultural protection" matched the US offer on the table at the World Trade Organisation, and sought compensation for poor countries.

Asked whether the Commonwealth statement would strengthen Tony Blair's hand with the French President, Jacques Chirac, who is staunchly protecting the interests of French farmers, when they meet from today in Barcelona at the Euromed summit, Mr McKinnon responded: "I think it has.He can say: 'Look, I'm also a member of the Commonwealth and I'm telling you this is a message from 52 other countries.' These leaders represent 40 per cent of the WTO membership. They're 20 per cent of world trade. So that can't be ignored."

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda escaped censure over the military trial for terrorism of his main opponent before next year's election, as Africans made it clear that their main concern at the summit was trade.

Mr Museveni was caught by surprise when he arrived in Malta to be advised by Mr McKinnon that some leaders were worried about the move which undermined the Commonwealth's agreed principles on democracy. There were also questions about whether Uganda should host the next Commonwealth summit in two years' time.

"I said to him, you've got to be very open about this issue, because a lot of people are very suspicious and are lacking faith in Uganda's ability to handle such issues like this," said Mr McKinnon.

The conference leaders reaffirmed the decision for Kampala to host the next summit.