Stop fighting us, rebel leader tells government

Burundi's remaining rebel group, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) will end the war only when government troops stopped attacking its forces, rebel leader Agathon Rwasa said on Wednesday.

"We are committed to lasting peace in Burundi," he told a news conference in Tanzania's commercial city of Dar es Salaam. "But the government must also respect our position. If we are attacked we are going to hit back."

A Tanzanian government official, who requested anonymity, said Rwasa had met Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and assured him of his personal commitment to seek peace. However, the official declined to say when the FNL-Burundi government peace talks would take place.

Earlier in April, FNL renewed its offer to enter into negotiations with the transitional government in Burundi following talks between an FNL delegation and Tanzanian officials in Dar es Salaam. The group also pledged to stop fighting as soon as negotiations began.

Although nations in Africa's Great Lakes region have agreed to label and treat the FNL as a terrorist organisation, Rwasa told reporters on Wednesday that FNL was a democratic movement that had been "forced by circumstances" to remain in the bush.

"Ours is not a gang of terrorists," he said. "We are going to come out of the bush once the environment is safe. We are there [in the bush] because government forces attack us."

He said he and other FNL leaders do not aspire to political office in Burundian general elections planned for later in 2005. He said all the movement was concerned with was lasting peace in Burundi.

"Our time has not come for that," he said.