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Talk s in South Africa between key players in war-ravaged Burundi were bogged down yesterday by a proposal by the Bujumbura government to postpone elections due in October by a year.

Earlier in the day, South African President Thabo Mbeki met political leaders from Burundi ahead of the final session of two-day talks to discuss the elections and an end to rebel fighting.

Mbeki held one-to-one consultations with the Burundian team, led by President Domitien Ndayizeye, and leaders of key political parties and a former rebel group, officials said.

But prospects of a plenary session yesterday to end the two-day talks in Pretoria appeared bleak with the standoff on the elections.

On Friday, the Burundian government called for the postponement of the elections by a year to October 2005, a plan which has to be approved by parliament if it is to come into force.

But Burundi's main Hutu Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) rebel group, which has been part of the government since late last year, on Saturday rejected plans to postpone scheduled elections.

The National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), the former largest rebel grouping, is the FDD's political branch.

"This decision by the government does not concern the CNDD-FDD which negotiated with a government that had a specific mandate," FDD Secretary General Hussein Radjabu told AFP.

Former rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza also rejected the proposal.

“We are ready for elections as scheduled. We do not want any delay," he told AFP in Pretoria late Sunday, adding that another important issue for him was to speed up the integration of his former Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) rebels in Burundi's transitional government.

The parleys began in Pretoria on Saturday in the presence of South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the mediator in the peace process and come a week before another round of talks on Burundi in Dar es Salaam.

The talks were also scheduled to touch upon the continued fighting by the oldest Hutu rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), of Agathon Rwasa.

Zuma said he would meet with FNL officials tomorrow before the Dar es Salaam summit.

The proposed elections will mark an end to a three-year transition process in Burundi since the signing of the Arusha peace accord to try to bring stability back to the nation.

Parties to that treaty have formed a transitional power-sharing government.

The Pretoria meeting comes against the backdrop of the United Nations assuming peacekeeping responsibilities in Burundi from tomorrow, a move enthusiastically welcomed by Zuma.

Since 1993, the Burundi conflict has left at least 300 000 people dead, most of them civilians, and devastated the country's infrastructure and economy. - Sapa-AFP  

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