Minister warns over Kenya violence

He urged Kenya's feuding politicians to engage with the peace mission of former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, the latest international mediator to try to broker an agreement between President Mwai Kibaki and his opposition rival Raila Odinga.

The Africa minister, who is in Kenya, said that Mr Annan's intervention gave hope for the restoration of stability, following a month of clashes which have killed around 800 and forced more than 250,000 from their homes after disputed elections.

The last few days have seen renewed bloodshed in fighting between Kenya's dominant Kikuyu ethnic group and members of other tribes.

Welcoming Mr Annan's involvement, Lord Malloch-Brown told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "That is why it has got a chance of success - you have got the world's most skilled negotiator for this kind of crisis negotiating at a point when the country could fall over the edge.

"Hopefully, that will create the conditions for success, but I have to say that success is by no means certain. Both sides have to show a seriousness to engage with each other which we have not yet seen."

He insisted that Britain was neutral in the struggle for power between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga. "The British Government doesn't have a horse in this race," he said. "We are for the people of Kenya and want their political leaders to get together and find a solution before the economy disintegrates in front of their eyes and before they lose control of the inter-ethnic violence."

Lord Malloch-Brown has been speaking with Kenya's political leaders during his visit. He said: "I am trying to get them to take the mediation of Kofi Annan and his African colleagues very seriously indeed, and to recognise the scale of the crisis the country faces.

"There is a need for them both to wake up to the immediate crisis management challenges and to enter into political dialogue with each other with a real willingness to make concessions which would allow a political solution to this crisis.

"This country is hurting. Its economy is way down. Tourist receipts are way down. It's a country which at points this weekend seemed almost physically divided, with roadblocks preventing people moving from one side of the country to another."