We Would Share Power, Says Exiled Leader of Syrian Islamist Group

The exiled leader of Syria's large, outlawed Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, has said his group is ready to share power in a future government with other opposition figures.

Ali Bayanouni, who has political asylum in Britain and lives in north London, said the Muslim Brotherhood wants a peaceful change of government in Damascus and the establishment of a "civil, democratic state", not an Islamic republic.

"We believe that after 40 years of this corrupt dictatorship it would be difficult for any one party to take responsibility for the country," he said in an interview with the Guardian at his home in Colinwood. "We definitely don't see ourselves as the alternative. We see ourselves as partners with others in the coming stage."

His comments mark a shift in the party's thinking since the 1980s when it challenged the Ba'athist regime. The Brotherhood was involved in an armed uprising against the state in which more than 10,000 people were killed. Since then the movement, which is still thought to have large support in Syria, has been repressed. Membership of the party is punishable by death.

The Brotherhood plays a leading role among opposition groups at a time when the Syrian regime faces a crisis. Several intelligence officials are suspects in aUN inquiry into the assassination last year of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

Damascus faces the potential threat of UN sanctions in the future, and last week the US froze the American assets of Assef Shawkat, head of Syria's military intelligence and brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad. Washington said he was involved in "Syrian terrorism" including interference in Lebanon and Israel.

Opposition figures have begun to speak openly about Syria's future if the regime falls.

Mr Bayanouni, 68, said he anticipated a broad national government if the Syrian regime falls. "We should have an interim authority where everyone can help each other to try to reform and repair what was corrupted," he said.

The regime has warned that if it is forced out radical Islamic movements will seize power in Damascus and sow chaos. There has been a growth of religious extremism in Syria, fuelled in part by the war in Iraq. The Damascus regime frequently reports violent clashes between its security forces and unnamed militants.

Despite its new rhetoric, the Muslim Brotherhood still has some way to go to convince the several other religious minorities in Syria that it does not harbour conservative Islamic political ambitions.

Mr Bayanouni, who trained as a lawyer and spent several years in jail, left Syria in 1979 after several of his family were arrested. He lived in Jordan for 20 years and moved to Britain in 2000. He has led the movement for the past decade and has presided over a pragmatic rethink of its policies.