Warnings of Further Violence in Kenya

Mediators today kept up the pressure on Kenya's rival factions to share power amid warnings of a fresh outbreak of violence in the absence of an agreement.

The unexpected departure for Nigeria by opposition leader, Raila Odinga, was not expected to have any bearing on today's scheduled talks.

George Nyamweya, a spokesman for president Mwai Kibaki's party, called Odinga's departure unexpected, but not necessarily a sign that negotiations had taken a sour turn.

"He's free to go and come as he pleases," Nyamweya said.

The new chairman of the African Union commission, Gabon's Jean Ping, has met officials from Odinga's party earlier today and is due to meet Kibaki later. Ping, elected at an AU summit in Ethiopia earlier this month, is the latest in a succession of senior officials to attempt to help resolve a dispute that has cost 1,000 lives, displaced 300,000 people and badly damaged Kenya's reputation for stability.

"The weekend will be crucial. We hope that next week we'll have something which can be agreed," Ping told a news conference in Nairobi.

"Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan yesterday said he was beginning to "see light at the end of the tunnel".

The two sides yesterday agreed to create a prime minister's post to be filled by the opposition. But they have yet to thrash out the contentious issue of how much power the prime minister would have. Local media, however, were guardedly optimistic.

"The consensus so far is no small matter," the opposition-leaning Standard newspaper said in an editorial.

A think-tank yesterday warned that armed groups are mobilizing for new attacks, and serious violence could erupt again if peace talks fail.

"Calm has partly returned but the situation remains highly volatile," the Belgium-based International Crisis Group said in a report. "Armed groups are still mobilizing on both sides."

Last year's December election returned Kibaki to power for a second five-year term, but Odinga has accused Kibaki's Party of National Unity of rigging the vote. The ensuing violence has stirred up ethnic grievances over land and poverty that have bedeviled Kenya since independence in 1963.

Much of the bloodshed has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy. Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement has threatened to resume street demonstrations next week unless the talks make significant progress.