U.N. abandons genocide court talks

UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations announced Friday that after 4 1/2 years it was abandoning negotiations with Cambodia to establish a court to try Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide because there was no guarantee the tribunal would be independent and impartial.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided to end the talks after the Cambodian government made clear that its law setting up the court would take precedence over any agreement with the United Nations on the conduct of the trials.

The U.N. decision leaves the Cambodian government free to move ahead on its own, or perhaps with the support of "interested states," to bring the surviving Khmer Rouge chiefs to trial, U.N. legal counsel Hans Corell told a news conference.

Khmer Rouge chief Pol Pot died in his jungle hide-out in 1998. His top lieutenants live and move freely in Cambodia.