The United Kingdom pushed for a repeat presidential election as President Kibaki and Orange Democratic Movement\u2019s Mr Raila Odinga, appeared to edge closer to the dialogue table, on the eve of the arrival of Ghanaian President Mr John Kuffuor.<\/p>\n
Monday night, Kibaki \u201d\u201d in a dispatch to newsrooms by the Presidential Press Service \u201d\u201d invited Raila and five other members of his party to a meeting on Friday at 2.30pm “to dialogue on the stoppage of violence, consolidation of peace and national reconciliation”. Also invited are nine senior clergymen.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Raila had raised expectations for a quick political settlement when he said ODM was ready for negotiations and dialogue to break the post-election impasse.<\/p>\n
In the same vein, the party called off countrywide protest rallies planned for Tuesday to allow mediation talks to be conducted in an atmosphere of peace.<\/p>\n
The party dropped preconditions it had earlier set \u201d\u201d which included that President Kibaki steps down \u201d\u201d as a prerequisite for the talks.<\/p>\n