BRUSSELS Belgian government and opposition parties agreed on Sunday to reform the police and justice system following last month's brief escape of reviled paedophile Marc Dutroux. The four centre-left government parties and four main opposition parties agreed to create a unified federal police force and a single district force, doing away with the military-style national gendarmerie and municipal police. The main change in the judiciary will be the creation of an independent high council which will supervise the legal system and appoint officials for seven years, ending the practice of politically inspired nominations for life.

A federal prosecution office will fight serious crime. A two-thirds parliamentary majority is needed to approve the plan as some of the measures, which will take up to four years to complete, involve changes to the constitution. Dutroux's three-and-a-half hour bid for freedom accelerated the multi-party talks amid public outrage over the botched security operation which enabled his dash from a courthouse.

Dutroux, freed from jail in 1992 after serving three years of a 13-year sentence for raping five girls in 1985, is being held in connection with the rape and murder of four young girls and the abduction and attempted starvation of two others. He is due to stand trial later this year. (Reuter)