Rice to urge Kenyan leaders to seek reconciliation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will telephone Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, whose disputed re-election has set off a wave of violence in his country, to urge a reconciliation between him and opposition leader Raila Odinga, the State Department said.

Rice has spoken to Odinga by telephone and a call to Kibaki was being scheduled, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on Wednesday.

"She's going to urge both gentlemen to do everything that they possibly can in the name of political reconciliation in Kenya to bring an end to any political tensions that might give rise to violence," McCormack said.

Kibaki's narrow election win on Sunday, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging, ignited days of riots and ethnic violence across Kenya that has killed more than 300 people and shocked world powers who are pressing the government and opposition to reconcile.

Before the controversial election, Kenya had been viewed as one of Africa's most stable democracies.

Rice joined British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a statement on Tuesday calling for a combination of "a sustained call from Kenya's political leaders for the cessation of violence by their followers with an intensive political and legal process."

Asked whether the United States recognized Kibaki's re-election and inauguration for a second term as legitimate, McCormack said: "The election commission has spoken on this."

"What is most urgent right now is that there be some political steps within the political arena to try to bridge differences to stop this killing," he said, adding the United States was aware of irregularities with last week's vote.

The violence in Kenya drew attention on the U.S. campaign trail just days after the presidential primary races were roiled by the turmoil in Pakistan following the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, whose father was born in Kenya, spoke to Rice by telephone from Iowa. In a statement broadcast over U.S. government-funded Voice of America radio, Obama also urged Kenyans to end the violence.

"Now is a time for President Kibaki, opposition leader Odinga, and all of Kenya's leaders to call for calm, to come together, and to start a political process to address peacefully the controversies that divide them," Obama said.

Rival Democratic candidate Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware condemned the violence and what he said appeared to be "serious fraud" in voting in Kenya.

"Kenya's political leaders -- from all parties -- must demonstrate their leadership by ending this violence," Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

"They must also agree to a public and transparent review of the election and its disputed results."

(Additional reporting by David Morgan, Editing by Chris Wilson)