Bangladesh ex-PM meets former US congressman

DHAKA, May 12 (Reuters) Former Bangladesh prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia met a visiting former US congressman, her first trip outside her home in more than a fortnight, after criticism the interim government had restricted her movements.

Khaleda and her political rival Sheikh Hasina have been targeted by the army-backed interim administration in anti-corruption drive ahead of elections.

Khaleda avoided any comment after her dinner meeting with US congressman Gregory Laughlin yesterday at the home of a senior leader of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Dhaka.

Laughlin said the current situation in the country was discussed, but did not elaborate.

Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since January, imposed in the wake of widespread political violence.

An election planned for January 22 was also cancelled and all political activity banned.

The army-backed interim administration has detained scores of politicians including Khaleda's son Tareque Rahman in an anti-graft hunt.

Media reports said Khaleda herself had been virtual confinement in her home since April 1 while the government sought to persuade her to go into exile. A party leader said there was renewed pressure on Khaleda to leave the country.

''The government has again started pressing Khaleda to go into exile in any country instead of Saudi Arabia,'' Hannan Shah, a senior leader of the BNP, told reporters.

Local media, quoting her associates and government insiders, had earlier reported that Khaleda had agreed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia in exchange for the release of her son. Khaleda was later believed to have backtracked on the deal.

The government denied any moves to send her into exile and earlier this week the head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, told the BBC that Khaleda and Hasina - also a former prime minister - were free.

Hasina, chief of the Awami League, received party leaders at her home yesterday and went out to visit a relative, her associates said.

But reporters have not been allowed to meet the two leaders. Security officials did not give any reason.

Hasina was briefly barred from returning from abroad last month ''on security reasons''. She arrived in Dhaka from London last week.

REUTERS SG VV1542