T HE newly-reborn Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has vowed itself prepared to work

closely with the main political parties - and Ieng Mouly's BLDP.

LDP president General Chhim Om Yon said last week that the party would "voluntarily

and intentionally" cooperate with Funcinpec, CPP and the Ieng Mouly side of

BLDP.

The purpose, he said, was to help strengthen political stability and the promotion

of social and economic development in the Kingdom.

Yon - a member of the former Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF), from

which LDP and BLDP were born - would not comment on why he would not work with Mouly's

BLDP rival, Son Sann.

But he said LDP would cooperate with Mouly's BLDP because: "Firstly, it is a

party which legally held a congress on July 9. Secondly, it came from the same front

as us and, thirdly, we consider it our brother."