Burundi rebels surrender

The conflict has raged for nearly a decade

Rebel troops who staged a coup attempt in Burundi have given themselves up to forces loyal to President Pierre Buyoya.

The rebels had attempted to halt the approval of plans for a transitional government at peace negotiations in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.

The coup attempt is over and everything is quiet

Army spokesman

After gunfire in the capital, Bujumbura, on Sunday night, about 100 army rebels were pursued in the north by loyalists before surrendering in the town of Ngozi.

Two soldiers were reported killed in the uprising.

The rebels, from the minority Tutsi ethnic group, are thought to be hardliners who fear a compromise deal will play into the hands of the ethnic Hutu majority.

Talks 'breakthrough'

The summit in Arusha earlier announced a breakthrough in attempts to end the bitter ethnic conflict which has killed at least 200,000 people in Burundi in the past eight years.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said that the majority of regional heads of state and political parties at the talks had approved arrangements for a transitional government which would see power shared between Hutus and Tutsis.

A Hutu president is supposed to take over as president after Mr Buyoya's 18 months at the helm.

Tutsi concerns

Three months ago Tutsi troops staged a failed attempted takeover by seizing the state radio building.

Many of the country's politically dominant Tutsi are concerned about the current peace process which they fear will hand power to the Hutu majority and expose Tutsis to risk of ethnic massacres.

President Buyoya: Seized power in 1996

And Mr Buyoya, who seized power in a coup in 1996 is bitterly opposed by a number of Hutu and Tutsi parties.

Nelson Mandela, the chief mediator of the talks, has used all his moral muscle to drag the parties to the negotiating table and keep them there, a BBC correspondent says.

But so far the two main armed Hutu rebel groups have stayed outside the peace process.

And analysts say that without their participation, Burundi's peace talks do not bring the country one centimetre closer to a ceasefire.