Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Monday he had called off protests because a "mediation process" to resolve the political crisis that has killed nearly 500 people was about to begin.
"We are now assured that the mediation process is about to start," Odinga told reporters after meeting U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer. "We are therefore informing our supporters countrywide that there will be no public rallies (on Tuesday)."
The death toll from post-election violence in Kenya has risen to 486, with a further 255,000 people displaced in one of the nation's worst moments since 1963 independence from Britain, the government said on Monday.
The figures from the Ministry of Special Programmes were a large rise on the previous death-toll of about 350 from unrest across east Africa's largest economy since the December 27 vote that gave President Mwai Kibaki a disputed re-election.
While most of the country largely returned to calm, there was an unconfirmed report from Uganda that 30 Kenyans drowned after being pursued by attackers into a river on the border.
Police on the Kenyan side could not confirm the report.
The post-election turmoil has marred Kenya's image as a bastion of stability in east Africa and threatened its economy - the region's largest.
Odinga, 63 on Monday, faces the dilemma of responding to international pressure to avoid anything that may provoke more violence while also maintaining momentum to oust Kibaki.
"Nobody wants to spill blood, but democracy has no shortcut," Odinga aide Tony Gachoka told Reuters.
Kibaki's government accused Odinga of "grandstanding" and perpetuating the unrest.
Fanning the controversy, the Law Society of Kenya called for Kibaki to step down and for fresh polls, saying the election was "not credible" and the announcement of a winner "unacceptable."
African Union Chairman John Kufuor, Ghana's president, was due to visit this week to try to mediate between Odinga and Kibaki. Their mutual distrust is a key obstacle to a solution.
Kibaki has said he is ready to form "a government of national unity." But Odinga wants him to renounce the presidency, hold talks through an international mediator, and enter a "transitional arrangement" prior to a new vote.
