(Adds quotes from Transparency International officials, details)
By Ed Davies
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Jan 28 (Reuters) - More than 100 countries met in Bali on Monday for a U.N. anti-corruption conference to find ways of clawing back some of the billions of dollars in assets stolen by corrupt leaders.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who won Indonesia's first direct presidential vote in 2004 after pledging to end corruption, can expect his own track record to come under scrutiny, particularly his handling of the late former strongman Suharto.
In the decade since Suharto stepped down, the former president fended off all attempts to seize his family's fortune, which Transparency International put at $15-$35 billion.
"Corruption is a communicable disease, within and across countries. In some places, like a pandemic, it is out of control," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which oversees a convention on corruption.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption, ratified by 107 nations, came into force three years ago and requires members to make corruption a criminal offence, as well as binding them to cooperate with each other over graft and to return stolen assets.
The task appears daunting. Global flows from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion are estimated at between $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion a year, according to a United Nations and World Bank report.
Along with Suharto, a list of former leaders accused of robbing their own people, compiled by Transparency International, includes Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, who amassed up to $10 billion, Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire, and Sani Abacha of Nigeria, who each took up to $5 billion.
Last September, the World Bank and United Nations launched the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, which aims to help poorer nations retrieve assets spirited away to richer countries.
Huguette Labelle, chairwoman of Transparency International, said in an interview she was concerned about the failure of some global financial centres, such as Singapore, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to ratify the anti-corruption convention.
SUHARTO CASE
Separately, Todung Mulya Lubis, chairman of Indonesia's Transparency International, told Reuters Indonesia must not let the death of Suharto derail legal attempts to retrieve state assets from his family and inner circle.
"The demise of Suharto should not release the kids and the cronies from any liability," said Lubis, also a prominent lawyer.
Suharto died on Sunday, aged 86.
In the weeks before his death when he lay critically ill in hospital, Indonesians vigorously debated whether to pardon him for the graft and human rights abuses that took place during his three decades in power or push ahead with legal action against his family and friends.
After Suharto stepped down in 1998 amid mass protests, he was charged with embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds. While the criminal case against him was dropped due to his poor health, he still faced a civil case related to his charities' alleged misuse of state funds.
Before his death, Suharto and his family denied any wrongdoing.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said on Monday it was inappropriate to talk about the legal case given that the funeral of Suharto was taking place.
But at a news conference at the sidelines of the Bali conference he said the government would "respect the legal systems applicable in Indonesia".
Experts consistently rate Indonesia one of the world's most corrupt nations, although Widodo Adi Sutjipto, Indonesia's minister for security, legal and political affairs, told the conference that corruption was "public enemy number one". (Editing by Jerry Norton)
