Cambodian royalists oust ex-PM Ranariddh as leader

PHNOM PENH, Oct 18 (Reuters) Cambodia's royalist FUNCINPEC party ousted Prince Norodom Ranariddh as its leader today at an extraordinary meeting denounced by the former co-Prime Minister.

Ranariddh, who had devoted less and less time to politics since a 1997 putsch by his co-Prime Minister and arch rival Hun Sen, was in Malaysia when the meeting took place.

His spokesman told Reuters the event was ''illegal'', a charge those present rejected.

''The party is still the same, we are still the royalist party,'' said newly elected FUNCINPEC president Keo Puth Rasmey, Cambodia's ambassador to Germany and a son-in-law of retired King Norodom Sihanouk.

Ranariddh had to be replaced if relations with Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party were to be repaired, FUNCINPEC officials said.

''The cooperation between Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh has come to an end and it cannot be fixed,'' Secretary General Nhek Bun Chhay said.

''We have tried to patch up relations, but failed. So if FUNCINPEC does not solve this crisis as soon as possible the problem will become more complicated,'' he said.

''It is time for Prince Ranariddh to leave. He is not able to perform his duty any more,'' said Prince Sisowath Sirirath, newly elected party vice president.

Ranariddh, who is also Sihanouk's son, won landmark United Nations-backed elections in 1993 that marked the beginning of the end of decades of war and unrest, including the Khmer Rouge ''Killing Field'' years in the 1970s.

However, he was forced to become co-prime minister with Hun Sen, who was appointed Foreign Minister and then Prime Minister in the 1980s by the Vietnamese after they toppled Pol Pot and installed a government in Phnom Penh.

Since the 1993 elections, FUNCINPEC had played an increasingly second-fiddle role in coalition governments dominated by Hun Sen's formerly communist CPP.

With Ranariddh at the helm, analysts and diplomats had expected FUNCINPEC to struggle to maintain its position as the southeast Asian nation's second political faction above the Sam Rainsy Party, which has always been in opposition.

Reuters DKA DB1104