The emissary, whose name was not revealed to the press until yesterday evening, carried a letter from Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina to CPA Secretary General Denis Marshal.

Hasina wrote back to Marshal after he sent a letter and made phone calls, urging her and her party to take part in the CPA October 4-12 conference.

Marshal requested Hasina Monday night to join the conference after the AL took the hard line on its three-point demand, including removal of two non-MPs from the conference steering committee.

At a press briefing at the party headquarters in the city yesterday, AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil said the AL also e-mailed the heads of parliamentary delegations of the 54 member countries of the Commonwealth, explaining its boycott decision.

Talking to newsmen separately at his Sangsad Bhaban chamber, Speaker Jamir Uddin Sircar, president of the 49th CPA conference, said he requested the AL to join the conference in a letter to the party president yesterday.

"I am trying to ensure their participation. All of their demands have been met. What more can I do? It will bring disgrace on the AL if it doesn't join the event," Sircar said.

But the AL general secretary described the speaker's letter to Hasina as too late a response and without etiquette, referring to the words in the text -- "you come, if possible".

Jalil said the speaker sent the letter only yesterday morning after 10 days of pressure on him and the government by the CPA headquarters.

The AL, unbending on its decision, accused the speaker and the government of "egocentric attitude" toward the opposition right from the beginning of the conference's preparatory work.

Levelling allegations of fund embezzlement against the government in organising the meet of the largest platform of lawmakers, Jalil said, "We don't want to be party to the process of misappropriation of the conference's budget."

The AL leaders reiterated party grievances that two political secretaries to the prime minister, who are not lawmakers, were dropped from the steering committee at the last moment, although "we objected to their inclusion over one and a half months ago".

He asked whether it would be possible for the government to cancel all 10 steering committee meetings and start all over, and blamed the government for not caring to select any convenor from the opposition party for any of the nine sub-committees on the CPA conference.

Both the speaker and the AL general secretary held each other responsible for what they said was a damage to the image of Bangladesh.

The speaker said, "We could cancel the conference after coming to power as the move was taken by the past government. We have not done so, thinking of our country's image."

He said he invited Hasina in a letter to attend the launch of the conference and speak on October 7, pointing out that her and her party's presence at other sessions and close of the meet would make the big event successful.

Sircar said, "I don't understand why the opposition won't join the conference although their all demands have been met without delay. I hope all misunderstandings, if any, will be resolved and they (AL) will join the conference."

The speaker's written speech at the press conference shows a delay, though.

Sircar said Abdul Hamid, the deputy leader of the opposition, wrote to him first on August 11, demanding an increase in the AL representation to the steering committee. Nineteen days later in a second letter on August 30, Hamid asked why the two political secretaries to the prime minister were included on the committee.

The speaker claimed to have assured the opposition of increasing the number of members of different committees.

Asked about the delay of one and a half months in meeting the opposition demands, the speaker said he did not make any delay.

Sircar referred to a letter to the deputy leader of the opposition on September 20 and said he had explained the logic behind the inclusion of two non-MPs -- Haris Chowdhury and Mosaddak Ali -- on the steering committee.

The speaker also said he wrote to Hasina on August 25, seeking her opinions on the conference and requested her to nominate party deputies for different committees.