Bush asked Rice to go to Kenya over crisis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, who heads to Africa this week, said on Thursday he has asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to go to Kenya with a message that there must be a full return to democracy.

Kenya's feuding political parties adjourned talks for the weekend, dashing chief mediator Kofi Annan's hopes to have a final political settlement this week to the post-election crisis.

Annan has led efforts to end the turmoil triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed December 27 re-election. Post-election clashes have killed at least 1,000 people.

"In Kenya we're backing the efforts of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to end the crisis," Bush said in a speech on Africa.

Rice will accompany Bush on his February 15-21 trip to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.

"And when we're on the continent I've asked Condi Rice ... to travel to Kenya to support the work of the former secretary general and to deliver a message directly to Kenya's leaders and people: there must be an immediate halt to violence, there must be justice for the victims of abuse and there must be a full return to democracy," Bush said.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by David Alexander)