LONDON - The exiled head of Syria's banned Muslim Brotherhood said Saturday his movement was ready to work with the country's former vice-president Abdel-Halim Khaddam to bring about a change of regime.

"For us, getting rid of the dictatorial regime could come in many ways," Ali Sadreddine Bayanouini told the British newspaper the Financial Times.

"During the transition it could happen through people within the regime."

But, he said, any transition period had to be followed by democratic elections. Khaddam, a former loyalist who stepped down as vice-president in June 2005, created a sensation when he left Syria last month and launched a scathing attack on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Byanouini, based in Britain, said he was not convinced by Khaddam's stated democratic credentials, the newspaper said, but was willing to assume that "he had woken up and decided to defect because the regime is leading the country towards a catastrophe".

Khaddam had still to explain his change of heart and past role but could "contribute to change in Syria".

"I think Khaddam will encourage others. We hope that whether they are Alawite or Sunni, others should leave. The future of this regime is disastrous," said Bayanouni.

Khaddam, 73, now living in Paris was one of the most powerful men in Syria when the current president's father Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000, was in office.

He was also the most prominent Sunni in a regime dominated by the Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs but lost influence when Bashar al-Assad came to power.

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