A UN negotiating team led by assistant secretary-general Ralph Zacklin will resume talks tomorrow with Cambodian government ministers on plans to try ex-rebel leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide.

A government proposal that gives Phnom Penh exclusive control over the trials shocked UN officials, who had a ``completely different'' position on how a joint tribunal should be established, said one source close to the negotiations.

The government is insisting the trials be held in its municipal court with a majority of the judges being Cambodian, and Cambodian and foreign prosecutors working by consensus.

UN officials have agreed to a trial under Cambodian law, but want a separate, special tribunal formed to ensure the process meetsminimum international standards of Justice.

The UN has also suggested the majority of judges and prosecutors be from foreign countries, and that they alone determine who is indicted to thwart attempts at selective justice.

``There's a difference between the two positions,'' conceded UN human rights envoy Thomas Hammarberg. ``The main difference is whether there will be a (separate) special tribunal.''

Many foreign legal experts have said Cambodia's notoriously corrupt courts cannot alone stage fair trials for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, who are blamed for the deaths of as many as two million Cambodians from forced labour, disease, starvation and summary executions between 1975 and 1979.

However, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has demanded any tribunal be held under Cambodian law, and Phnom Penh control the majority of judges.

Meanwhile, a former Khmer Rouge military commander said today he would co-operate fully with any joint tribunal and arrest all ex-rebel leaders who wereindicted.