America in consultations on Rwanda

The American State Department says it is holding talks with the Rwandan government and its neighbours in an effort to prevent the continuation of large-scale ethnic violence in the region.

A spokesman in Washington said the United States was deeply concerned about the prospect of renewed genocide in Rwanda, where hundreds-of-thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists in 1994.

Earlier this month, more than three-hundred people were killed in northwest Rwanda during a visit to the region by the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service