King's offer rejected

Beijing - King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia said yesterday that the country's Second Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, had rejected his offer to abdicate, and had called on the ruler to bring peace to the impoverished country. King Sihanouk's call for peace came as Cambodian forces loyal to Mr Hun Sen, who seized power last month in a coup, tightened a noose around the last bastion of royalist support as they closed in on a town near the border with Thailand.