Kenya edges toward power-sharing pact

Calls to the opposition were not immediately returned.

"I am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel," said former UN chief Kofi Annan, who has been mediating in the political negotiations. Both sides "outlined a joint proposal, that had been largely agreed, on the governance structure," Annan said.

The Dec. 27 election returned President Mwai Kibaki to power after opposition leader Raila Odinga's lead in early vote counting evaporated overnight.

Foreign and local observers said the count was rigged, and ensuing violence has stirred up ethnic grievances over land and poverty that have bedeviled Kenya since independence in 1963. More than 1,000 people have been killed.

On Wednesday, Kenya's opposition had threatened mass protests unless serious work to put power-sharing into the constitution started within a week.

It was the latest sign that the country remains delicately balanced on the edge of violence despite weeks of peace talks.

Much of the bloodshed has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy.

A think tank said yesterday that armed groups on opposing sides of the political and ethnic strife are mobilizing for new attacks and serious violence could erupt again if peace talks fail.

"Calm has partly returned but the situation remains highly volatile," the International Crisis Group, based in Brussels, said in a report. "Armed groups are still mobilizing on both sides."

Talks between Kibaki and Odinga have focused on how to create a broader-based government to end the crisis.