American President Bill Clinton has urged African leaders to seek reconciliation in order to achieve peace in Burundi.

He was speaking via a satellite link to leaders from seven countries meeting in the Tanzanian town of Arusha to try to find an end to Burundi's political deadlock.

"It requires courage for these leaders to accept the risks of peacemaking," Mr Clinton said.

"The courageous and brave thing to do is to find reconciliation and to give everyone a role to play in Burundi's future."

Earlier, former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is leading the talks, said he would ask Washington to give financial backing to the Burundi peace initiative.

"We have not got the resources that you and other powers have," Mr Mandela said.

President Clinton responded that the US would help to "create the economic conditions" necessary to sustain peace, but did not say what form the help would take.

'Stake in your future'

"We will do this because it is the right thing to do and because we, too, have a stake in your future," Mr Clinton said.

But he emphasised that it was up to African leaders to take steps to bring stability to Burundi and its neighbours, which have been wracked by ethnic violence for a decade.

On Monday, Mr Mandela said unrest would continue in Burundi unless the Tutsi minority relinquished its monopoly on power.

Tutsis dominate the government and the military, although 84% of Burundi's 6m inhabitants are Hutu.

Leaders of the main Hutu rebel group have not turned up at the Arusha talks.

Mr Mandela warned that the absence of key rebel groups was a serious drawback to hopes of ending the six-year war between the army and rebels.

Presidents Paul Buyoya of Burundi, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda are attending the talks, as well as Kenyan Vice-President George Saitoti.

Amnesties

The Arusha round of talks began in June 1998, bringing together 18 delegations from Burundi's government, parliament, opposition parties and some rebel groups.

They made little progress and did nothing to stop the bloodshed, which began in 1993 after the assassination of the country's first elected Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye.

Most Burundians are peasant farmers who have suffered enormously.

More than a million people have been displaced by the war and more than 200,000 killed since 1993.

More than 345,000 Hutus remained confined in army-run camps and restricted from tending their land during the year's main planting season.

There are many issues to be hammered out in Arusha, including the questions of amnesties and how to integrate rebels into the army.