( dpa ) - Negotiation teams representing Kenya's rival politicians were set to square off Wednesday in a bid to find a solution to the crisis sparked by disputed elections that has plunged the country into violence.
Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan brought President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga together Tuesday and each team was set to submit a response to Annan's proposed rules of engagement before the talks could officially begin.
The two teams of three met late Tuesday to assess Annan's proposal.
"They were trying to set some ground rules but the subsequent session might happen later today or tomorrow, after (Kibaki's) Party of National Unity has given its formal response," said Salim Lone, spokesman for Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
Annan on Tuesday called on both sides to urgently find a resolution to the stalemate, saying "short-term" issues would be resolved in four weeks, even as renewed violence sparked by the shooting death of an ODM legislator flared-up countrywide.
The BBC reported that at least nine people were killed in Tuesday's clashes in ethnic-based violence around the country that has seen Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe battle Odinga's Luo people as well as some of the country's 42 other tribes.
Meanwhile, the UN's special adviser for the prevention of genocide is set to send a representative to Kenya, the independent Daily Nation reported, to investigate the violence that some rights groups have said was planned.
Odinga charges Kibaki rigged the elections and has demanded he step down.
More than 800 people have been killed in the brutal violence that has seen houses torched, victims burned alive and at least 250,000 people displaced in what has marked a disturbing change in the otherwise peaceful and stable country.