Burundi rebels drop amnesty bid, agree to go home

Burundi's last rebel group said on Wednesday it would return home to implement a long-awaited peace deal and drop its demand for an amnesty, boosting hopes for peace in the country.

"We have a meeting with representatives of the international community who support the peace process ... The aim is to discuss how we can arrive in Bujumbura without any problems," Pasteur Habimana, spokesman for the Forces for National Liberation (FNL) rebels, told Reuters by telephone from Dar Es Salaam.

FNL leaders in exile in neighbouring countries had been given 10 days to go back to the coffee-growing country by regional leaders but wanted an amnesty before they would agree.

The ultimatum was due to take effect on May 15.

Habimana said the leaders, mostly based in Tanzania, would not return to the bush but talk to the government to decide their plans.

Burundi's government welcomed the move.

"The FNL are Burundian citizens, they have to come so that we build our nation together," said Evariste Ndayishimye, head of Burundi's delegation to the peace talks.

Despite a 2006 peace deal, more than 50 people have been killed and thousands displaced in new clashes over the last three weeks between FNL fighters and the Burundian military.

The FNL' s persistent insurgency is regarded as the final barrier to lasting stability in the tiny central African nation of 8 million, which is emerging from more than a decade of ethnic conflict that killed 300,000 people.