Kenyan Rivals Sign Agreement, Yet Negotiations Will Not End

Political rivals trying to lead Kenya out of weeks of violence that left more than 1,000 people dead signed an agreement yesterday, a U.N. spokesman said.

No details were released and the talks were to continue next week.

A former U.N. chief, Kofi Annan, who is mediating the discussions, will release a text of the agreement Friday afternoon, said the spokesman, Nasser Ega-Musa.

Mr. Annan and the negotiators have spent two days trying to hammer out agreements following a dispute over who won the December presidential election. A news blackout on the peace talks appeared to be holding; both parties have declined to comment on the discussions.

The talks are being held at a safari lodge in the Tsavo West National Park in southern Kenya. Top negotiators said Tuesday that the opposition was proposing sharing power with the government for two years, then holding new elections.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga accuses President Kibaki of stealing the December 27 vote, and domestic and international observers have said was deeply flawed. Messrs. Odinga and Kibaki have been under pressure to share power as a solution.

The political dispute sparked clashes that killed more than 1,000 people and forced 600,000 to flee their homes. Much of the violence has pitted other groups against Mr. Kibaki's Kikuyu people, long resented for their prominence in government and business.

The violence has been shockingly brutal in a country once considered among the most stable in Africa, and the ethnic component to the bloodshed has polarized Kenyans as never before.

The conflict has drawn international condemnation, with several countries threatening to cut aid, impose travel bans or freeze the assets of anyone suspected of inciting violence.