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Buru ndi moved another step closer to peace yesterday, when the only rebel group still active in the country said it would hold talks with President Domitien Ndayizeye after refusing to do so during more than 10 years of civil war.

The government confirmed that talks would be held with the Hutu rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL), who on yesterday also lifted an ultimatum for the central African state's top Catholic cleric to leave the country by the end of January.

The prelate, Monsignor Simon Ntamwana, had accused the FNL of having been behind last month's "execution" of the Vatican envoy to Burundi, Monsignor Michael Courtney.

"Ndayizeye wants to listen to us. He asked to meet us. We agree to talk with him to explain our problems, concerns and so on," FNL spokesperson Pasteur Habimana said.

"We will go with him (for talks) as father of the nation," he said, adding that the meeting would be held between January 15 and 20 but declining to specify the venue.

Presidential spokesperson Pancrace Cimpaye confirmed that the meeting would take place during the period specified by Habimana, adding that it would be held abroad.

"It is a meeting we couldn't have hoped for... We think that it is probably the beginning of negotiations with the government.

Everything depends on what comes out of the meeting," he said.

Habimana also said that the FNL had lifted its ultimatum against Ntamwana, the head of Burundi's episcopal conference, who accused the movement of carrying out the December 29 ambush, which fatally wounded Courtney, an Irish archbishop who had played a key role in the country's peace process.

"Monsignor Ntamwana lied and accused us of having killed the papal nuncio. Since the ultimatum (issued December 31) we note that he has said nothing further against us. The utlimatim is lifted," said Habimana.

"He can go where he likes, like all Burundians," he added.

The FNL's roots date back to the 1970s in refugee camps in Tanzania, to where many Burundians had fled massacres in their country.

It has since suffered several internal splits.

More than 300 000 people have died since 1993 in Burundi's civil war, which has pitted Hutu rebels against the Tutsi-led army and a government until recently also dominated by the same minority ethnic group.

Hutus make up around 85% of the population of Burundi, while Tutsis account for just 15%.

Except for the FNL, which has an estimated 3 000 armed men according to Human Rights Watch, all the Hutu rebel groups involved in the conflict have made peace with the government and joined its ranks.

The FNL has repeatedly refused to negotiate with the current power-sharing administration, a coalition of 17 parties, both Hutu and Tutsi, saying it was only worth talking to the Tutsi leaders of the army who, according to the rebels, wield true power in the country.

On November 16, heads of state from Africa's Great Lakes region gave the FNL three months to come to the negotiating table.

But the rebels rejected the ultimatum and have since stepped up their attacks on the capital.

The FNL has recently also engaged in combat with the former rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy, Burundi's largest Hutu armed group, which signed a peace deal with the government in November.

Also in in November FNL leaders travelled to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for preliminary peace talks but walked out before discussions got off the ground, complaining that their interlocutors represented a government barely recognised by the FNL, rather than the Tutsi leaders they had been expecting. – Sapa-AFP.

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