Speaking upon his return from talks in Washington with US commerce officials, Cham Prasidh said US quotas would deal a blow to the rapid growth of the Cambodian garment industry and jeopardise the impoverished country's development.

"If they put quotas on us, for sure, we can't increase the number of garment factories," Cham Prasidh told reporters.

"We don't want to affect the US market, but Cambodia needs private enterprise and we need to provide jobs for our employees... we are a poor country that needs development."

Cambodia's garment industry has seen dramatic growth in recent years despite the regional crisis and local political turmoil.

Garments account for a large proportion of Cambodia's export income. They earned the country $298 million in the first 10 months of 1998 compared with $227million for the whole of 1997 and $79 million in 1996, according to commerce ministry figures.

Cambodia's total exports last year were worth $735 million compared with $643 million in 1996, according to central bank figures.

About 80 per cent of Cambodian garment exports now go to the United States, Cham Prasidh said.

The United States currently imposes no restrictions on Cambodian garment imports with the exception of a quota on cotton and man-made fibre gloves and mittens.

But in October the United States said it had noticed a sharp increase in imports from Cambodia of cotton knit shirts and blouses and cotton sweaters. Washington requested consultations on "an appropriate level of restraint" on the items.

Cham Prasidh said Cambodia now had 111 garment factories and they spent $3 million a month in wages for their 72,000 employees.

Another 139 garment factories, which would provide 110,000 jobs, had recently been licensed but US quotas could frighten them off, he said.

"If they impose quotason us how can we attract new investors?" he asked.

He said US commerce officials would travel to Cambodia next month to discuss the quotas and garment factory working conditions.

"Everything we discussed is part of a whole package and the whole package will be completed in Cambodia in January," he said.

"The US wants to focus on working conditions. If we cannot protect the rights of workers then US companies are afraid to buy garments from Cambodia because workers' unions there will lobby and affect their business," he said.

He said authorities would monitor working conditions and violators of the labour law could have their licenses cancelled and visas revoked.

"We are a pro-business government but we are also a pro-worker government," he said. "They have to respect our (regulations concerning) working conditions."

Cham Prasidh said earlier that the United States wanted to limit Cambodia to 1.7 million dozen blouses and shirts a year, compared with current exports to the United States of 1.9-2.0million dozen a year.

He said the United States wanted to set a limit of 53,000 dozen on cotton sweaters a year. Cambodia now exports about 50,000 dozen cotton sweaters a year to the United States.