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DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 17 (AFP) - Rwandan government and rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) negotiators went into a closed plenary session Saturday afternoon in another attempt to turn the page on the two-year-old Rwandan civil war, Tanzanian foreign minister Ahmed Hassan Diria announced.
Diria, who is chairing the peace parley at Arusha in northern Tanzania, said that after three days of direct consultations, the two sides had broken a lot of ground on broader principles of power-sharing.
"The trend is on the right direction ... I am told that the Rwandan government is very responsive to the negotiations. This is very encouraging and we hope to cover the whole issue of power-sharing very soon," Diria told AFP by telephone from Arusha where the talks are being held.
There was optimism regarding a political settlement in the Rwandan government camp too.
The foreign minister Boniface Ngulinzira said: "We have made great progress in our negotiations ... every time we are coming to close understanding between us, as both of us are anxious to see peace is resumed in Rwanda."
Already the two sides have agreed on the role of the presidency in an interim administration, during which executive powers would be vested in a transitional cabinet headed by a prime minister, and the legislature.
Current President Juvenal Habyarimana, who would continue in office during the transitional period to democracy, would assume a more ceremonial role.
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