PRAYING FOR BAHRAIN

Bahrain's Royal Family has been saying for more than two weeks it is willing to talk with what has proved to be a resilient opposition movement. They have made little headway so far.

Rather than sit down at the negotiating table, anti-government protesters have been amplifying their calls for change by staging regular marches, increasingly into the capital's central business district.

Protest signs hanging from tent posts and makeshift food stalls at Pearl Roundabout where many are camped out offer scant evidence they are willing to talk.

A big reason for the impasse is that the opposition is divided on how far to push its demands. Some groups, including the largest opposition political bloc Al Wefaq, are pushing for democratic reforms within the existing political system.

Many of the mostly young demonstrators who have taken over Pearl Roundabout want more. They claim they have been let down by unfulfilled promises of reforms and are appalled by the recent use of lethal force to clear the area.

Last week several hundred high school students marched across the country in an orchestrated act of protest.

Established opposition parties have now come together to lay out a set of unified demands. They are open to conditional negotiations something rejected by those who wanted open talks with everything on the table. "We don't want a dialogue for the sake of dialogue, but a dialogue that results in a solution that satisfies all parties," said Sheik Ali Salman, the leader of Al Wefaq.

The major opposition parties want the existing parliament to be dissolved and replaced with a constitutional monarchy governed by elected representatives. Early on in the protests, it seemed that's what many of those at Pearl Roundabout wanted, too. And some still do, according to interviews with demonstrators.

"All we are asking for is justice and to be treated fairly," said Hussain Abdullah, 39, a small business owner who joined in the protests. But others have grown more radical. Some demonstrators have plastered their tents with photos of government ministers on homemade 'wanted' posters.

That tension between an old guard opposition accustomed to working within the system and an impatient and disaffected youth movement makes it hard for dialogue efforts to move ahead, analysts say.

The government, for its part, is eager to get the dialogue process into gear. His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander, has called on all Bahrainis to 'to start immediately the national dialogue and to put an end to the harming of people's interests.'

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 government supporters met once again near the Grand Mosque last week to pledge their support to the Royal Family, call for unity and to pray for peace and harmony.