Kufuor to go to Kenya for crisis talks

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ghanaian President John Kufuor will visit Kenya next week in an attempt to break the country's political deadlock and end its explosion of ethnic violence, his foreign minister said on Saturday.

The mission by Kufuor, chair of the African Union, to a nation swept by tribal clashes since a December 27 election the opposition says was rigged, had appeared to have been abandoned on Friday after Kenyan authorities rejected the idea.

But Kenya's deputy foreign minister Moses Wetangula flew to Ghana for talks on Saturday, and Ghanaian Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei-Adjei told Reuters that embattled Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, official election winner, had now approved the trip.

"The Kenya president is inviting President Kufuor in his position as the AU chairman to visit that country to assess the situation and advise ... he is going there next week to talk to both sides on ways of ending the violence," he said.

"I must emphasize that we are not going to go there immediately to validate the election results as to who has won or not."

Earlier on Saturday, Kibaki said he was ready to form a national unity government to end riots and political bloodletting that have killed at least 300 people and forced 250,000 from their homes.

The opposition said the offer changed nothing, Kibaki should step down and only internationally-mediated talks would end the crisis.

"The country is burning. We're extremely distressed that this government has put roadblocks in the way of President Kufuor coming here more quickly," said Salim Lone, spokesman for Kibaki's rival Odinga.

A spokesman for Kibaki's team said he could not immediately comment on what had caused the hold-up in Kufuor's visit.

He said he had just returned from Rift Valley -- where some of the worst tribal clashes have taken place -- and repeated the government's allegation that the violence was "genocide" planned before the polls by opposition leaders.

DISTRUST

The United Nations says the unrest has uprooted 250,000 people, and that many in the west are facing starvation after fleeing violence that included the burning to death of 30 people barricaded in a church.

World powers have been horrified by the bloodshed in what had been seen as one of Africa's most stable democracies. On Saturday, U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer met both men, shortly before Kibaki unveiled his offer of a unity government.

Odinga had looked on course to win the vote until Kibaki was handed a narrow victory last Sunday. International observers say the election fell short of democratic standards.

The opposition appeared to have ruled out a national unity government even before Kibaki's statement.

"We know how governments of national unity operate. We have been there before with Kibaki. That is a way to cheat Kenyans of their rights," Odinga said.

Odinga helped Kibaki win power in a 2002 election, but says the president then broke a promise to award him a new prime minister's position. Their mutual distrust is a key obstacle to ending the standoff.

Meeting Frazer, Odinga reiterated his demand that a transitional government be formed ahead of new presidential vote within three to six months.

Kibaki was sworn in at his residence on Sunday just an hour after the results were announced. Opposition anger exploded around the country in demonstrations and tribal killings that mostly only subsided on Friday.

The crisis in Kenya, a regional business and transport hub, has already hurt neighboring countries. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are all suffering fuel shortages.

(Additional reporting by Bryson Hull, Katie Nguyen, Nicolo Gnecchi, Wangui Kanina, Joseph Sudah and Kwasi Kpodo; editing by Andrew Roche)