Kenya Talks Resume As Violence Continues

Talks between Kenya's bitter political rivals resumed today amid opposition calls for peacekeeping troops to be sent to tackle the continuing violence sweeping the country.

The former UN general secretary Kofi Annan will again chair today's meeting between representatives of the disputed president, Mwai Kibaki, and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga.

Yesterday, Odinga said UN or African Union troops should be deployed to help end the violence.

On Friday, the two sides agreed to a two-week plan to stop the bloodshed. However, violence continued over the weekend and overnight, when at least seven more people died in fighting between the Kisii and Kalenjin communities in Sotik, 150 miles west of Nairobi.

The UN estimates that 921 people have been killed since the disputed December 27 presidential elections, which international observers described as flawed.

The poll's aftermath saw ethnic clashes, with much of the anger aimed at Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for its domination of politics and the economy.

Today's talks will focus on the humanitarian situation and the plight of the 250,000 people displaced by the violence. The parties are expected to tackle the issue of the election tomorrow.

Annan said it would take up to a year to solve deeper problems, inviting the respected South African negotiator Cyril Ramaphosa to help with the talks.

However, Ramaphosa was today forced to pull out after complaints from the government that he had business links with Odinga.

Earlier, the opposition negotiator William Ruto said his party, the Orange Democratic Movement, had faith in the Annan-led mediation process.

"We are hopeful that Annan's mission will succeed because it has the support of the international community, and our party is determined to give it every chance to make it a success," he said.

Both sides remain at loggerheads. Kibaki accused his opponents of orchestrating the violence, and Odinga said Kenyans would not allow their votes to be "stolen".

"Kenyans will continue to resist Kibaki because they didn't elect him," he said in an interview with the Associated Press. "He has no choice but to step down because the world will judge him harshly."

He also blamed the police for the violence, adding: "At the moment, they are a source of insecurity.

"They are shooting people to kill. Therefore, we need some kind of foreign force to come and assist." He said the Kenyan army was not neutral.

"They are answerable to one person, the commander in chief ... Kibaki," he said. "That's why we want to have a neutral force - it can either be the AU or the UN if the use of military is necessary."

The New York-based Human Rights Watch group has expressed concern about the police's shoot to kill policy to deal with the post election violence. It also found evidence that a junior official with the ODM had organized some violent incidents.