Boucher, Khaleda agree on stronger democracy...........

US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Richard Boucher and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia want to see a strong democracy, according to officials.

"The United States wants to see that democracy gets strong in Bangladesh. Our expectation is that parliament will be the centre of productive discussions," he told journalists after the meeting on Saturday evening.

Boucher saw the former prime minister at the office of the BNP chairperson at Gulshan.

In the hour-long talks, they discussed Bangladesh-US relations and ways to strengthen democracy.

US ambassador James F Moriarty and other American embassy officials were present at the meeting. Present on the BNP side were secretary-general Khandker Delwar Hossain, and foreign affairs advisers to the chairperson Reaz Rahman and Shamser Mobin Chowdhury.

Boucher said he and the BNP chief had not discussed the proposed Trade and Investment Framework Agreement neither about her son Arafat Rahman Coco.

"The US is always against corruption. We hope that all cases on corruption will be conducted with transparency," he said.

Khaleda said, "BNP believes Bangladesh and US will maintain good relations and this relation will be further strengthen in future".

Shamser Mobin said, "It was a courtesy call on the leader of the opposition by Boucher".
He said Khaleda and Boucher held the same view on strengthening of democracy in Bangladesh.

"The US assistant secretary of state praised the role of the BNP government in maintaining relationship with the US."

He said Boucher expressed gratitude to Bangladesh for cooperation with the US in containing terrorism.

Besides, Khaleda had also talks with Boucher on the Palestinian issue.