By Gordon Bell MAGALIESBURG, South Africa, June 10 - Burundi's government and the country's last rebel group intend to achieve a lasting peace without further fighting, the two parties said at talks on Tuesday in South Africa, "The government of Burundi and Palipehutu-FNL renounced violence and undertook to resolve all their differences by dialogue," the two said in a statement after the talks in the town of Magaliesburg outside Johannesburg. The coffee-growing nation is emerging from more than a decade of ethnic conflict that has killed some 300,000 people. There was also agreement the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), the rebel group led by Agathon Rwasa, would be accommodated in political institutions and its fighters taken into the security and defence forces of Burundi. "There was an eagerness to demonstrate that we are done with the past," South African mediator Kingsley Mamabolo told reporters after the talks. "Around February, there was absolutely no hope...people were dying on a daily basis (but) there is a new chapter now." The parties appealed in a communique to all groups in Burundi to refrain from any action that could jeopardise the progress achieved and expressed their commitment to conclude the peace process. Rwasa has said his forces are ready to demobilise and want peace with Burundi's ethnically mixed, Hutu-led government. President Pierre Nkurunziza, a former Hutu guerrilla, was elected in 2005 as part of an African-brokered peace agreement backed by the United Nations. The FNL was not part of that deal. The group signed a separate pact with the government nearly 20 months ago. But that stalled and sporadic fighting broke out that killed nearly 100 people in recent weeks. Burundi and the FNL jointly agreed to a ceasefire on May 25. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Editing by Matthew Jones)
British Ambassador to U.N. John Sawers (C) talks to Sudan's president assistant Nafi Ali Nafi (R) as South Africa's Ambassador to U.N. Dumisani Kumalo looks on before the meeting of members ...
