Burundi rebels agree peace talks

The integration of rebel fighters into the army has been delayed

The only rebel group still fighting the Burundi Government has agreed to hold peace talks with the president.

A spokesman for the National Liberation Forces (FNL) said the talks would take place between 15 and 20 January, reports the AFP news agency.

However, Monday's deadline for the demobilisation of fighters from another Hutu rebel group is likely to be missed due to a shortage of funding.

Some 300,000 people have died in 10 years of war between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis.

"[President Domitien] Ndayizeye wants to listen to us. He asked to meet us. We agree to talk with him to explain our problems, concerns and so on. We will go with him [for talks] as father of the nation," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP.

The BBC's Prime Ndikumangenge in Bujumbura, says the FNL rebels have for the first time agreed to talk without imposing any conditions to President Ndayizeye's government .

Initially the rebels said they will only hold talks with Tutsis, who they say hold the real power and still dominate the army.

Threat lifted

Mr Habimana also said the demand for Burundi's most senior Catholic churchman to leave the country had been lifted.

Archbishop Simon Ntamwana had accused the FNL of executing Michael Courtney, the Vatican's envoy to Burundi, who was shot dead last week.

Monsignor Courtney was buried in Ireland on Saturday.

President Ndayizeye had said in a televised New Year's message that the demobilisation of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) should be finished by Monday, with the new army leadership in place by 7 January.

But the army chief of staff said the delay was not a problem.

"The main thing is that the process is underway," General Germain Niyoyankana told AFP.