DHAKA -- Bangladesh's Finance and Planning Minister M. Saifur Rahman has lashed out at government standards, saying "rotten governance and deteriorating law and order" might frustrate his plans to speed up reforms and alleviate poverty.

"The state itself is a big terror", Rahman, a key figure in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government, told an economic discussion on Saturday, the ***Ittefaq*** newspaper reported.

He said that implementing reforms, attracting investment and fighting poverty depended largely on good government, empowering local administration, and stopping police abuses.

"police, using Article 54 (of the penal code) arrest and assault anyone and often force suspects to confess crimes." The ***Ittefaq***, the country's leading paper, also quoted Rahman as saying that, "If I go to bank with money, it may be snatched on the way by people putting a pistol at me," Reuters reported.

He said both the BNP and the main opposition Awami League were "lathargic or unwilling" to speed up reforms, leaving the country lagging behind others and damaging its reputation.

"We have to strive harder and work more resolutely if we want to overcome suspicions and criticism of the IMF and the World Bank," Rahman was reported in the media as saying.

Nearly half of Bangladesh's 130 million people still live in poverty, according to official estimates.

--- Tension --- The remarks came as the BNP was already grappling with simmering tension following planned duty increases and the sudden resignation of president A.Q,M. Badruddoza Chowdhury on Friday.

The Awami League said the president's resignation over differences with the BNP leadership was "unconstitutional and unethical".

It has decided to attend Parliament, ending a boycott over alleged BNP fraud in its general election victory last October.

Awami leaders said they wanted to protest against the higher duties proposed by Rahman in the 2002-03 (July-June) budget, the persecution of opposition leaders and workers, and to "play a role to take the country out of a crisis situation." Rahman earlier said the fiscal measures he had proposed in this month's budget were aimed to cut dependence on dwindling foreign aid and funding development with local resources.

The Awami League said it was intended to make the poor poorer, and has pledged to oppose it within and outside Parliament.