President Mwai Kibaki said on Saturday he was ready to form a national unity government to end Kenya's bloody turmoil but the opposition brushed the offer aside, saying he must step down and negotiate.
After a week of political violence and tribal clashes since the disputed December 27 election, Kibaki said he would accept a unity government "that would not only unite Kenyans but would also help in the healing and reconciliation process".
But the opposition said the offer changed nothing and only internationally mediated talks would end a crisis that has killed at least 300 people and forced 250,000 from their homes. "My position has not changed. We want a negotiated settlement. Our starting point is that Kibaki is there illegally. He should not come to the negotiating table as the president," opposition leader Raila Odinga told reporters.
Odinga spokesman Salim Lone told Reuters: "Without international mediation we have no faith that any agreement will be adhered to." Kibaki's office issued his offer after he met the top US Africa diplomat, Jendayi Frazer. President George W. Bush sent Frazer to Nairobi on Friday to try to help end the crisis.
Frazer's mission was the latest attempt at mediation by world powers horrified by the turmoil in what had been seen as one of the continent's most stable democracies, and an ally of the West in its efforts to counter al Qaeda. Odinga, who had appeared on course to win the vote until Kibaki was handed a narrow victory last Sunday, says the election was rigged and his rival is an illegal president.
International observers say the election fell short of democratic standards.
Odinga appeared to have ruled out a national unity government even before Kibaki's statement. "We know how governments of national unity operate. We have been there before with Kibaki. That is a way to cheat Kenyans of their rights," he said after meeting Frazer earlier.
Odinga helped Kibaki win power in a 2002 election but says the president broke a promise to award him a new prime minister's position after the victory. Their distrust is a key obstacle to ending the crisis.
The president's office said Frazer had "commended President Kibaki for reaching out to the opposition in order to stop the violence and called on all parties involved to embrace dialogue as a way out of the current situation." The refusal of Odinga and Kibaki to negotiate has frustrated both Kenyans and Western powers and prolonged the crisis.
In his meeting with Frazer, Odinga reiterated the opposition's demands that a transitional government be formed to prepare for a new presidential vote within three to six months. Kibaki was sworn in at his residence only an hour after the results were announced on Sunday. Opposition anger exploded around the country in demonstrations and tribal killings that mostly only subsided on Friday.
The United Nations says the violence has uprooted 250,000 people - far more than previously feared. UN officials were scrambling to get food to people facing starvation after fleeing violence in the west, which included the burning to death of 30 people barricaded in a church.
The crisis in Kenya, a regional business and transport hum has already hurt neighbouring countries. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are all suffering fuel shortages. It has also dented Kenya's image as a stable anchor in a turbulent region.
About 600 Burundian peacekeepers were unable to fly to anarchic Somalia this weekend because of a jet fuel crisis caused by the Kenyan chaos, a military spokesman said. Although most of the violence has subsided, about 40 houses and a primary school were torched on Friday night and scores of people injured in an election-related attack on a village west of the famous Maasai Mara Game reserve, residents said.