African leaders must debate the inclusion of Burundi's main Hutu rebel group, Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), in the army and political institutions the next time they meet on the central African country, a Burundian official said today.

Yesterday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni invited regional heads of state and government to attend a summit on the political transition and deployment of a peacekeeping force in Burundi. No date has been set for the proposed meeting.

"What will be discussed during the summit is the integration of the FDD in the political institutions of transition (government, parliament and administration) and everything concerning the cantonment, demobilisation and integration into civilian life of combatants," said Burundian Communications Minister Albert Mbonerane, who is also a spokesman for the army.

On April 30, Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi who had since November 2001 led an interim government set up to ensure more equitable power-sharing in the central African country, wracked by civil war since 1993, handed power to his Hutu deputy Domitien Ndayizeye.

The power-sharing government was set up under a peace agreement signed in August 2000 in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha. The two main rebel groups, the FDD and the National Liberation Forces (FNL), did not sign the Arusha accord and continued to wage war against the Tutsi-dominated army.

The FDD eventually signed a ceasefire agreement with Buyoya's government, in December last year, but it was never respected.

In his first official act since assuming the presidency last week as part of a three-year power-sharing deal, Ndayizeye gave cabinet posts to officials from breakaway wings of the FDD and FNL.

Cyrilly Hicintuka, who belongs to a dissident faction of the FNL, was named civil service minister, and Gaspard Kobako, of a wing of the FDD, minister of public works.

The summit proposed by Museveni is expected to be attended by the heads of state and government of Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, a source close to the talks said.

The high-level talks could take place next week in Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, but "Museveni is still awaiting replies from several key players before he fixes a date," Julius Onen, a spokesman for the Ugandan foreign ministry, said.

Ndayizeye is also expected to take part in the summit. – Sapa.