DISTRICT power-sharing negotiations foundered over how big the leadership of each

district should be, and whether Funcinpec should get to appoint more than one chief

or deputy per district.

In negotiations before Prince Norodom Ranariddh publicly complained about Funcinpec's

lack of power, Funcinpec sought an equal number of chiefs and deputies as CPP had.

CPP, in response, offered Funcinpec the right to appoint only one person - a chief

or deputy - in each district.

Districts currently have a leader and two or three deputies each, meaning the CPP

proposal would have allowed the party to continue to fill all the other positions.

Sources say the issue was the major stumbling block to a settlement between the two

parties, which have already signed agreements on other matters.

In December, co-Ministers of Interior Sar Kheng (CPP) and You Hockry (Funcinpec)

signed an agreement permitting each of the parties to appoint the leaders of half

of Cambodia's 174 districts.

It was agreed that where there was a Funcinpec leader, the first deputy would be

appointed by CPP, and vice-versa.

In February this year, another agreement was signed permitting Funcinpec to integrate

1648 people into ministry positions in provincial, city and district offices. But

the issue of how many deputy leaders each district should have - and who should appoint

them - remains in dispute.

Ministry officials say Funcinpec asked for the number of existing deputies in each

district to be doubled, with the party filling the fresh positions.

CPP responded by saying that Funcinpec could appoint one person - the chief of half

of the districts, and the first deputy in the others - with CPP keeping the remaining

deputy positions.