DHAKA: Bangladesh`s interim government, which took over after a mass uprising last year, warned on Saturday that unity was needed to `prevent the return of authoritarianism`.

A spokesman for the government later said Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus held talks with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former premier Khaleda Zia and the Jamaat-i-Islami on resolving the political crisis.

The country of 170 million people has been in political turmoil since ex-prime minister Sheilch Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in August last year, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

However, after a week of escalation during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka, the government said politi-cal power struggles risked jeopardising gains that have been made and pleaded for people to give it their full support.

`Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organise free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,` it said in a statement.

`Continuously obstructing` Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned from exile at the behest of protesters last year, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections that are due by June next year at the latest.

However, the government warned that it had faced `unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements`, which it said had been `continuously obstructing` its work.

Sources in his ofñce and a key political ally said on Thursday microfinance pioneer Yunus had threatened to quit.`If the government`s autonomy, reform efforts, justice process, fair election plan, and normal operations are obstructed to the point of making its duties unmanageable, it will, with the people, take the necessary steps,` the statement said.

Wahiduddin Mahmud, who heads the finance and planning ministry, insisted that Yunus will not step down early.

`We are going to carry out the responsibilities assigned to us, Mahmud told reporters on Saturday. `We can`t simply abandon our duties.

`Reconsider our support` `If he is unable to announce a specific election date by December, we will reconsider our support for his administration,` senior BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed said in an interview on a private TV channel broadcast on Friday.

According to Bangladeshi media and military sources, army chief General Wal(er-Uz-Zaman also said this week that elections should be held by December, aligning with BNP demands.-AFP