By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Central African Republic's president is preparing to hold a national dialogue with rebel groups and political foes to try to end a devastating bush war in the north, a facilitator in the process said on Wednesday. President Francois Bozize, who seized power in 2003 and was elected two years later, has signed peace pacts with two rebel groups this year. He is now promoting an all-inclusive political dialogue aimed at achieving national reconciliation in the poor, conflict-torn former French colony in the heart of Africa. "The president finally decided to hold this dialogue. ... It's the beginning of what we think would be a fairly long process," said David Lambo, who is working as an adviser with the Swiss-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Lambo told Reuters by phone that Bozize had asked the Geneva-based independent centre, which specialises in conflict resolution, and the United Nations to help organise the national dialogue in the next few months. Since 2006, raids by several armed groups and counter-attacks by government soldiers have driven nearly 300,000 people from their homes in the north-west and north-east of the Central African Republic. Villages have been razed in the attacks and tens of thousands of people are still living rough in the bush. Diplomats and analysts see the fighting in the Central African Republic as part of the wider conflict in Sudan's Darfur and Chad. The United Nations is proposing to deploy a European Union-led peacekeeping force in Chad and the Central African Republic to complement a bigger U.N. force for Darfur. Bozize arrived in neighbouring Sudan late on Tuesday for talks with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on ways of improving security in a region rent by political and ethnic tensions. PEACE MOVES Lambo said representatives of two CAR rebel groups and leaders of political parties had attended a preliminary meeting with government officials in Bangui last week. The next step would be to create a preparatory committee that would formally launch the national political dialogue by the end of the year. This followed an Aug. 13 independence day celebration speech by Bozize in which he announced his readiness to hold an all-inclusive reconciliation process. "I've firmly decided to extend my hand to all of my compatriots, from all regions and whatever their political colour," he said in the speech. The government has made peace this year with two rebel groups, one led by Abdoulaye Miskine, an associate of former President Ange-Felix Patasse, whom Bozize ousted in March 2003. The other, the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR), captured a large swathe of north-east Central African Republic late last year before being repulsed by government troops helped by French fighter jets and special forces. Another rebel group, the Popular Army for the Restoration of the Republic and Democracy (APRD), had so far shied away from signing a peace deal with the government. Lambo hoped its members could be persuaded to join the reconciliation process. "We will be supporting this process in whatever way the Central African Republic government and people want," he said. (Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher)
