The former leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Pol Pot, has said that his conscience is clear over the suffering and death of more than a million people during his rule in the 1970s.

Pol Pot, widely held responsible for the notorious "killing fields" during his "Year Zero" revolution, said in an interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review that he had tried to carry out a revolution in Cambodia, not to kill people.

He acknowledged that he had ordered the execution of political opponents, but said that to speak of millions dying was too much.

"To say that millions died is too much," he said in an exclusive interview with the Honk Kong-based magazine to be published on Thursday.

It is widely thought that more than a million Cambodians died of disease, starvation, hard labour or were executed as enemies of revolution from 1975-1979 before Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders were routed by an invading Vietnamese army.

"I came to carry out the struggle, not to kill people ... even now, and you can look at me: Am I a savage person? My conscience is clear," he said.

Pol Pot, who is 72, was decribed as looking very ill and perhaps near death during the interview, which took place in northern Cambodia where he is being held by the current Khmer Rouge leadership.

The interview for the magazine was conducted in Cambodia on October 16 by the Review's correspondent Nate Thayer, who in July became the first foreign journalist to see Pol Pot in 18 years.

Thayer, who was present when the Khmer Rouge staged a jungle trial of Pol Pot in July, repeatedly pressed Pol Pot to respond to accusations that he was a mass murderer, the magazine said in a news release.

However, Pol Pot did admit his movement had "made mistakes" during its 1975-79 rule, but said he and the Khmer Rouge leadership had been forced to take action by Vietnam. However, in a separate interview to be published by the Review, Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok -- a former top lieutenant of Pol Pot known as the "butcher" for his brutality -- rejected Pol Pot's claims of innocence.

"It is clear that Pol Pot has committed crimes against humanity," he told Thayer. "I don't agree with the American figure that millions died. But hundreds of thousands, yes."

Ta Mok, who overthrew Pol Pot and now heads the Khmer Rouge, told the magazine his former chief would not be handed over to face an international tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity unless the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, was put on trial as well.

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