The Burundian transitional government and the country's only active rebel group signed on Sunday a truce deal, according to a statement issued after talks between Burundian President Domitian Ndayizeye and rebel leader Agathon Rwasa.

"The two parties declared an immediate cessation of hostilities and decided to set up technical teams in a time frame not more than one month," Burundian Foreign Minister Therence Sinunguruza said in the statement.

The technical teams will decide the mechanism of a permanent peace in Burundi.

Sunday's meeting in Dar es Salaam was the first between the two sides since the Burundian authorities broke off contacts with the Forces for National Liberation (FNL) after the rebel group had claimed responsibility for the killing of 159 Congolese refugees at Gatumba northwest of Bujumbura in August last year.

The Burundian transitional government and the rebel group agreed on Sunday to soon start negotiations on ending their hostilities and on bringing the FNL into the country's peace process.

Back in 2003, negotiations were held between the Burundian authorities and the FNL rebels in the Netherlands and then in Nairobi of Kenya, but both failed to bring forth any outcome.

In April this year, heads of state from the Great Lakes Region met in Kampala of Uganda to extend Burundi's transitional governance to August this year while giving Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa a mandate to continue hosting talks between the Burundian government and the FNL group.

The FNL had been the only one of Burundi's seven rebel groups not to have signed a peace deal with the Burundian transitional government.

In the extraordinary summit held in Kampala among Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, the transitional period of Burundi was extended further from April 22 to August 26.

The transitional period was originally set for three years and was to have ended in October 2004. The Great Lakes Region countries had in November last year set April 22 this year as the end of the extended transitional period.

The transitional period had been extended by six months to accommodate the Burundian preparation for elections.

Even though it held a national referendum in February this year over its new constitution, Burundi still lacks relevant laws to facilitate the election process.

Burundi, a small land-locked country in central Africa, is emerging from 11 years of civil conflicts that have claimed the lives of some 300,000 people.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2005)