US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has had talks in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, with Rwandan President, Pasteur Bizimungu and Vice President, Paul Kagame. Speaking at a brief press conference afterwards, she made much of the problems currently facing the country in the aftermath of the genocide. Ameilia French reports form Kigali:

Madeleine Albright was at pains to stress the difficulties which Rwanda is facing in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide and did not dwell for long on the government's human rights record. She said Rwanda's future was critical to the region and to Central Africa as a whole.

She described the successful return of 1.5 million refugees to Rwanda in the past year as a remarkable accomplishment on the part of the government. In clear reference to the Hutu insurgency in the north west of the country, and allegations of excessive force by the army against the civilian population, she said she'd emphasised the importance of ensuring security while not causing harm to non-combattants.

Asked about emerging reports that groups of Rwandans have recently started fleeing from the north west across the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo, she said only that she had discussed the reintegration of refugees so as to ensure they're not the cause of additional fighting. She said there was clearly room for improvement on human rights and stressed the importance of maintaining a human rights unit in the country, by which she appeared to mean the UN human rights field operation.

The government is unhappy about that operation and there is uncertainty about its future. Madeleine Albright announced that the US would be giving $1.7m to help demobilise soldiers returned to civilian life, $1.2m for education programmes for returning refugees and $1m for projects promoting democracy and reconciliation.