"What is expected of President Yahya Jammeh is for him to openly declare that he won't seek a third term in office,"  declared Halifa Sallah, who heads the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS).

Jammeh seized power in a military coup in July 1994, transformed himself into a civilian politician and later won the presidential elections held in 1996 and 2001. On both occasions the opposition alleged fraud.

"Jammeh should carry out constitutional reforms which would make it mandatory for a ruler to leave office after a maximum two terms," suggested Sallah, currently the minority leader in the Gambian National Assembly.

"In addition to the constitutional reforms President Jammeh should also free the civil service of political manipulation, encourage the security services to respect the constitution and give the media freedom and access to official information", he told the Banjul-published Point newspaper on Tuesday.

"This way he will be clearing a path for a firm democracy after his departure from office," the opposition leader claimed.

In the same interview, Sallah described Jammeh's reign as "monarchical" and advised him to "stop tinkering with the constitution".

The Gambian constitution has been revised several times on the orders of the president since it was approved in 1997.

In 2000, the basic law was hurriedly amended to grant indemnity to soldiers and other security units involved in the  killing of more than a dozen schoolchildren who held a peaceful demonstration that year.

In 2001 the charter was again altered to legalise the president's decree creating a national media commission to prosecute journalists.

Earlier this year, the constitution was revised to omit a clause making it mandatory for a presidential candidate to collect more than 50% of the total vote to be declared outright winner in a first round ballot.

In his interview with the Point, Sallah also denounced the government's alleged corruption. "What's evident today is that the government has discovered how it can sustain itself in office by accumulating immense wealth to feed its politics of patronage and inducement," he charged.

He was responding to scathing attacks by President Jammeh recently on renewed efforts by the opposition to form a coalition to challenge him in the 2006 elections.

An opposition merger attempt just before the 2001 presidential election failed to materialise after Sallah's PDOIS withdrew at the last minute, while the National Convention Party (NCP), Gambia's oldest opposition force, formed an alliance with Jammeh's ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction.

After winning the 2001 election with 52% percent of the vote during the first round, Jammeh nominated the NCP leader, Sheriff Mustapha Dibba, to the influential position of Speaker of the National Assembly.

Sallah is the latest politician to raise the issue of a presidential term limit. Last year, another opposition leader, Hamat Bah of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) raised the issue in the National Assembly, where Jammeh's party has an overwhelming majority.

The APRC used its numerical strength to vote down the motion 50-3 in a true reflection of the unicameral parliamentary composition.

The Gambia, which gained independence from Britain on 18 February 1965, has a population of just over 1.3 million  inhabitants and nine political parties.

These are the APRC of President Jammeh, the United Democratic Party (UDP) led by lawyer Ousainou Darboe, the PDOIS of Sallah, the NRP of Bah.

Others include the former ruling People's Progressive Party (PPP) founded by deposed President Sir Dawda Jawara. His former agriculture minister Omar Jallow now heads it.

National Assembly Speaker Dibba heads the NCP, while a medical doctor Lamin Bojang is the leader of the People's Democratic Party (PDP)doctor Lamin Bojang. The last party to be created in 2002 is the National Democratic Action Movement, headed by Lamin Waa Juwara.

Jammeh's military coup on 22 July 1994 put an end to 30 years of uninterrupted rule by President Jawara, during which elections were held concurrently for president and parliament every five years.

Since Jammeh seized power the vote for president has always preceded that of parliament by at least two months. Jammeh's coup was the second military attempt against the Jawara government.

In 1981, Kukoi Samba Sanyang, aided by the then Field Force, briefly grabbed power when Jawara was in England attending the wedding of Prince Charles and the late Diana Princess of Wales.

Sanyang's coup was put down three days later by the Senegalese army after Jawara quickly flew into Senegal, invoked a long-standing defence pact between the two neighbouring countries.

Jawara signed an agreement with the former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf to create a short-lived Senegambia confederation, which collapsed in 1989.