Burundi president to talk to rebel Hutus

Hutus and Tutsis have been fighting since 1993

Burundi's President, Pierre Buyoya, has agreed to open direct ceasefire talks with the country's main ethnic Hutu rebel group in an attempt to end seven years of civil war.

It was the first time the president had met the rebel leader since the civil war began

The president agreed to the talks during a landmark meeting with Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, said a government spokesman.

More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Burundi since 1993, when civil war broke out after soldiers from the Tutsi minority killed the first democratically elected president, a Hutu.

A peace accord was signed last August in Arusha, Tanzania, by 19 parties involved in the conflict, but it was rejected by the two rebel movements and fighting has continued.

'First step'

But on Tuesday the president met Mr Ndayikengurukiye, who leads one of those groups, in the Gabonese capital, Libreville.

"They agreed to begin talks on a ceasefire but where and when was not decided," said government spokesman Apollinaire Gahungu.

President Kabila led the Gabon meeting

"The fact that they met is a promising sign and is indicative of positive things to come, an important first step to stop the fighting."

The talks in Gabon were brokered by Laurent Kabila, president of Democratic Republic of Congo. He accuses Burundi of backing rebels fighting to overthrow him.

On Wednesday, Congolese Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu told diplomats that the Burundian government and the FDD had agreed to withdraw their troops from the Congo.

Burundi's rebels, especially the FDD, have bases inside the Congo and are heavily involved in the war there, fighting alongside Mr Kabila's and allied forces against Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundian government soldiers.

Armed campaign

The news of the talks came as President Buyoya was on a one-day visit to Tanzania for talks with his Tanzanian counterpart President Benjamin Mkapa to discuss last year's peace agreement.

Mr Buyoya, a Tutsi army major, seized power in a 1996 coup.

The peace deal is supposed to pave the way for Burundi's return to democracy. It calls for a transitional government to be set up within six months, elections in three years and for the army to split evenly on ethnic lines.

The other rebel group which rejected the peace deal is the FNL. Last month the group said it was stepping up its armed campaign because of government attacks on its positions.