Britain and Us Call for Compromise to End Kenya Riots

Kenyan leaders on all sides must call on their followers to end the violence that has hit the country since Sunday's disputed presidential vote, Britain and the United States said today in a joint statement.

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, and his US counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, said their immediate priorities were to support a political compromise in Kenya and to find a way to stop the bloodshed that has claimed more than 275 lives.

Their joint statement noted "there are independent reports of serious irregularities in the counting process".

But it said the immediate focus should be on a political compromise between opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki, who was inaugurated for a second term on Sunday after a vote alleged to have been rigged.

Miliband pointed out there were allegations of voting irregularities on both sides. "We don't know who won," he insisted in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today program.

"There is a responsibility on both sides to ensure that the political process is maintained." He said both Kibaki and Odinga "need to reach out and find common ground".

Yesterday Odinga rejected a plea by Gordon Brown to negotiate with Kibaki, saying he would only do so if Kibaki acknowledged that he had lost the election.

Asked about this rebuff, Miliband said: "There are public and private discussions going on."

Kibaki has called for a meeting with his political opponents.

Today Kenya's Standard newspaper quoted the head of the country's electoral commission Samuel Kivuitu as saying, "I do not know whether Kibaki won the election."

Yesterday up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus were burned alive in church where they were sheltering from the violence. It brought the death toll to more than 275 after four days of rioting.

Reuters reported the government had banned TV stations from live broadcasts ahead of planned protest rallies against the election results planned for tomorrow, which the government has also tried to ban.