The government is taking steps to increase women's participation in policy making, said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

While declining to reveal a time frame, Najib said he wanted at least 30 percent of women to be among the nation's decision makers.

At present, women only make up 9.1 percent of members in Parliament while there are only 309 females out of 1,647 senior civil servants, he told reporters after opening the Felda Women Seminar 2006 in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

One important post, that of governor of Bank Negara, is held by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz whose contract has been renewed by the government for another five years, he said.

"The success of the women in their chosed fields should be an inspiration to the women in Felda schemes to strive for a more prominent role," he said.

The deputy premier proposed four primary roles for Felda's women to pursue, which were to assist their husbands in developing their land, teach their children to become good citizens, build a happy home and help raise the income of their family.

They could also make handicraft, rear livestock and till the land, he said.

Weekly street demos

Asked why the government had allowed several street demonstrations to take place for the past weeks, Najib said, "It's up to the police. They are in control of the situation,".

Street demonstrations without permits from the authorities are considered illegal gatherings and are chargeable in court.

But this has not stopped demonstrations in various parts of the Klang Valley being held after every Friday prayers since Feb 10, when about 10,000 gathered in front of the Danish embassy denouncing the publication of offensive caricatures of Prophet Muhammad being published in a Danish daily.

Following this, a protest was held over the cracks found on elevated portion of the Middle Ring Road 2 highway in Kepong. The week after, scores of protestors demonstrated against the publication of a cartoon in the New Straits Times which was deemed insulting to Muslims.

With the recent 30 sen fuel hike announcement, the last two Fridays saw demonstrations in front of the Petronas Twin Towers.

No one was arrested over the past five demonstrations. However, yesterday's 2,000 strong fuel hike demonstration outside the Petronas Twin Towers saw riot police being mobilised to disperse the crowd.

Another protest is slated for March 19 at 10am in front of the American embassy over the latter's three-year occupation of war torn Iraq.