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LONDON, April 9 (AFP) - The new Rwandan prime minister called Saturday for talks with rebels advancing on the capital Kigali, after the swearing in of his new government, according to a radio address monitored here by the BBC.
Prime Minister Jean Kambanda also called in his inaugural speech for clampdown over the next two weeks on the unrest which has raged in the capital and elsewhere over the last three days.
"The Rwandan government believes that there is no other way of restoring peace to the country apart from continuing talks with the RPF," he said referring to the Rwandian Patriotic Front.
Forces of the RPF, which has denied the legitimacy of the new government, earlier Saturday began leaving their bases in northern Rwanda and advancing on the capital.
Kambanda said his government set up Friday would continue talks with the rebels and would aim to set up transitional institutions - as envisaged by a peace agreement signed last year in Arusha, Tanzania - in six weeks' time.
He said security forces would aim to restore order within two weeks. "The ministers charged with security ... will do everything possible to restore peace as soon as possible. Let us say within about two weeks," he said.
Kambanda also called for international aid to help the government stave off famine, which he said was affecting people almost everywhere in the country after nearly four years of war.
Meanwhile the country's new president, appointed following the death of his predecessor in a plane crash on Wednesday, defended the legality of the new government, which rebels have condemned.
President Theodore Sindikubwabo also praised the army's decision to set up a crisis committee together with civilian leaders.
"Some who do not understand the constitution enough will surely criticize our action. However, that is normal. The decision we made was to extricate the country from the constitutional void," he said in his inaugural speech.
"The deputy speaker of the national assembly said it all: we have not violated any article. We are within the law. We consulted our legal experts on the legality of the decision. They said that we were right."
