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DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 25 (AFP) - The Rwandan government and the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) on Wednesday started direct consultations on power-sharing after a two-day stalemate on the agenda, since they arrived at Arusha in northern Tanzania on Monday.
According to the Tanzanian foreign ministry, the two sides finally agreed to start negotiating on power-sharing.
The peace talks brokered by Tanzania were scheduled to resume on Monday after a three-week break for consultations, but failed to start after the RPF rejected a government demand to skip the problem of power-sharing and tackle questions of integrating RPF forces into the national army and the repatriation of Rwandan refugees.
"We rejected this because you can't just start talking about integrating the forces without first having political understanding," RPF spokesman Patrick Bazimwaka told AFP by telephone from Arusha.
During their last round of political negotiations, the two sides failed to agree on allocation of cabinet portfolios and representation of the various parties in an interim national assembly.
It was then agreed that the two issues should be tackled during this new, fifth round of talks before going into the questions of the armed forces and refugees.
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