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"There is no power vacuum," she said, but added that the ministers' were understably concerned for their safety following the coup attempt.
"When you see lorries full of armed soldiers in the streets, reminding you that the country is at war, aren't you scared yourself? So put yourself in the place of ministers hunted by the soldiers," she said.
Military vehicles drove through Bujumbura streets on Thursday afternoon, but in small numbers.
On Wednesday, Kinigi said in a radio broadcast that "the little group which tried to take power has been dismantled," referring to a self-proclaimed public salvation committee formed after the coup was launched.
The head of the committee, Francois Ngeze, was under house arrest, while 15 members of the armed forces who took part in the putsch have fled the country, according to state radio in neighbouring Rwanda.
Informed sources here, however, said they believed Ngeze, who was interior minister in the previous regime of military ruler Major Pierre Buyoya, had found refuge in the U.S. embassy.
Kinigi is from the minority Tutsi tribe. She was appointed by Ndadaye after he beat Buyoya in democratic elections in June and pledged to end the small central African nation's endemic ethnic strife.
Another meeting on Burundi took place in neighboring Rwanda on Thursday, chaired by host President Juvenal Habyarimana and attended by Tanzanian and Zairean Prime Ministers John Malecela and Faustin Birindwa.
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim and Said Rifaat, a special envoy of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, were also present, Radio Kigali said, without giving further details.
Like Rwanda, Tanzania has been confronted by a massive flow of Burundian refugees fleeing violence and massacres among Tutsis and Hutus which erupted anew after the coup.
In Tanzania alone, officials said the number of refugees had risen from 85,000 on Wednesday morning to 250,000 early Thursday.
at/nb/dm AFP AFP
