Bangladesh Nobel winner says may enter politics

DHAKA, Feb 11 (Reuters) Bangladesh's 2006 Nobel Prize Peace winner Muhammad Yunus today said he might launch a political party and stand for elections for the welfare of the country.

Yunus, known as the banker to the poor, said he had written an open letter to countrymen asking for their views on his plans to enter politics.

''I am ready to float a party if you think my association with politics is necessary,'' Yunus said in the letter which he read out to reporters.

''I think it is the right time to take decision (for joining politics) with the support of the people,'' he added.

His comments come at a time when the army-backed interim administration has launched a major drive to clean up politics ahead of elections, detaining more than 60 political leaders from the mainstream parties over allegations of graft and abuse of power.

Yunus said, depending on the people's response to his letter, he would launch his party to participate in the next general election. The date for the poll has not yet been announced.

The election, originally set for January 22, was postponed and a state of emergency was declared last month in the wake of countrywide violence between rival political parties, in which 45 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded were cited for their work to lift millions out of poverty by giving loans to the desperately poor, especially women in rural Bangladesh.

REUTERS SY KP1710