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ARUSHA, Tanzania, March 15 (AFP) - Rwanda's government and its rebel foes were to reopen peace talks here Tuesday amid disagreement over plans for French troops to withdraw from the country.
The two sides agreed earlier this month that nearly 700 French troops protecting foreigners in Rwanda should be replaced by United Nations and Organisation of African Unity forces.
But a representative of the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) expressed concern at a statement by Rwanda's President Juvenal Habyarimana that the French soldiers would only leave when the rebels withdrew from territory captured since an upsurge in fighting early last month.
Patrick Mazimhaka, a member of the RPF delegation led by Pasteur Bizimungu which arrived in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha on Monday, said the agreement was for the French forces to start leaving Wednesday.
In a national broadcast Sunday, Habyarimana denied a statement last week by interim Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyaremye, that the French forces would begin withdrawing on the day the peace talks opened.
Habyarimana has frequently clashed with the interim coalition government which he installed to pave the way for democracy.
"I don't know where President Habyarimana got the authority to speak. We know that we have agreed for the French troops, and all other foreign forces, to start pulling out from March 17," Mazimhaka told AFP.
Mazimhaka said the RPF was awaiting clarification from Rwanda's Foreign Minister Boniface Ngulinzira, who also arrived here Monday at the head of the government delegation. He was not immediately available to comment.
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