Odinga calls off protests after talks with Annan

Nairobi: Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga on Wednesday called off street protests that had been set to press the government to strike a power-sharing deal to end the country's post-election crisis.

Odinga and President Mwai Kabaki have come under pressure from at home and abroad to compromise over Kibaki's disputed re-election in a December 27 vote, which sparked ethnic violence that killed 1,000 people and made 300,000 flee their homes.

Fears of further violence grew when Odinga last week announced plans for more nationwide protests.

"We ... are committed to the talks. We have postponed until further notice any actions planned for tomorrow," Odinga told reporters, after meeting with crisis talks mediator Kofi Annan who had asked him to call off the demonstrations.

Exasperated that the talks had deadlocked, the former United Nations chief on Tuesday suspended them and told Odinga and Kibaki that they would have to make the decisions themselves. He met both yesterday.

"Issues that divide the parties are bridgeable ... with political will," Annan told reporters. "The solution must be found in the mediation room."

The Daily Nation newspaper said in an editorial: "If violence breaks out and drives the country into war as a result of the failure [of the negotiations], the blood of its victims will be on the hands of the politicians who made it impossible for Dr Annan to reunite Kenya."

Previous protests have degenerated into bouts of looting and rioting, and provoked a police response that often turned fatal.