PHNOM PENH : International donors to Cambodia have expressed disappointment over the impoverished kingdom's failure to enact a long-delayed anti-corruption law.

Cambodia promised donors last year that it would enact the law by the end of 2006 as part of a raft of anti-corruption measures.

But during a meeting between the government and donors, US ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said little progress had been made.

"It is time -- indeed, past time -- to immediately enact an international standard anti-corruption law, and it is also time to do it right," Mussomeli said, speaking on behalf of Cambodia's donors.

"This law, which stands to benefit all Cambodians, by contrast has experienced delay after delay," he added.

The law has been in the works for more than a decade but is still under review by the government's top legal experts, the Council of Ministers, the ambassador said.

"On behalf of all development partners, we ask you when will this law be enacted?" Mussomeli said.

Cambodia's donors have made tackling corruption the focus of their reform efforts, tying hundreds of millions of dollars to the government's willingness to clean up graft.

Cambodian Finance Minister Keat Chhon said the slow passage of the law was due to "much contradiction" within Cambodia's complicated legal system, but denied intentionally delaying the process.

"We are not using difficult issues as an excuse to slow the draft of our law," he said.

The government has repeatedly blamed delays in the anti-corruption law on Cambodia's slow progress in drafting a new penal code.

Donors led by Japan, France and the United States gave 600 million dollars in aid to Cambodia last year, accounting for about half of the country's annual budget.

Rights groups regularly push the donors, which also include Australia, Canada and several European countries, to demand reform rather than simply hand over cash.

International graft watchdog Transparency International (TI), said in December that corruption pervaded almost every sector of Cambodia, making it one of the most graft-ridden countries in the world.

The Economic Institute of Cambodia think-tank estimates that Cambodian businesses lost about 330 million dollars to graft last year.

- AFP/ir