King Jigme Singye Wangchuck has been slowly pulling his isolated mountain state into the modern world and declared his desire to relinquish some of his powers.

A new draft constitution has been drawn up and was to have been put to the people in a referendum last year. Elections were to follow for the remote country's first parliament.

But royal astrologers believe the stars will not be favourably placed until 2008 for the country, wedged between India and China, to take the plunge and abandon royal rule. To do so would bring serious problems, a palace official said.

"The king took their advice very seriously. That's the reason why he has decided to hold the first democratic elections in the kingdom in 2008," the official said, requesting not to be named.

A referendum on the new constitution will now be put to the country's 700,000 people early in 2008, and if it is passed elections will be held before the end of that year.

The draft keeps the king as the head of state, but parliament - consisting of two houses, a 75-member National Assembly and a 25-member National Council - would have the power to impeach him with a two-thirds majority vote.

The draft gives no indication of what powers would remain with the monarch, the fourth ruler of a hereditary dynasty that first took the throne in 1907.

In 2001, Wangchuck, who became king in 1972 at the age of 16 after the death of his father, initiated the drafting of a new constitution, a document he made public in March last year.

In December he announced he would also hand over the throne to his son, Crown Prince Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, in 2008.