Forgiveness can be national, but justice must be international

Ashdown on 'Pinochet dilemma'

Sir Paddy will present his ideas from The Invisible Revolution - his first paper since stepping down as leader last year - at a meeting on the fringes of the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth on Tuesday.

Financial force

In the paper he stated: "The EU seems to believe that we can create an economic giant, while still having the luxury of remaining a political pygmy - that we can once again leave it to someone else to come in and bail us out in our own backyard."

An international agreement, similar to that after World War II which set up the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, is needed to establish a formal structure for the relationship between the euro and the dollar, he wrote.

Calling for major changes in the United Nations to improve its peacekeeping capacities, Sir Paddy also addressed the issue of international justice.

Ashdown outlines his ideas on the "Pinochet dilemma"

He proposed a solution to the so-called "Pinochet dilemma", which saw the Chilean dictator granted immunity in his own country, but prosecuted abroad.

Sir Paddy wrote: "Perhaps we could agree that the people of a nation have a special right, which others do not have, to forgive a dictator for actions from which they, after all, are likely to be the principal victims.

"However, if that dictator leaves the sanctuary in which his own citizens have agreed to put him, then outside his country he must expect to suffer the full rigours of international law for the crimes he has committed.

"Forgiveness can be national, but justice must be international."

Sir Paddy, who has made it clear that he wants to avoid distracting attention from his successor as leader Charles Kennedy, is making no speeches at the official conference this week.