The African Union chairman headed to Kenya on Tuesday to help end turmoil that has killed almost 500 people, but hopes of a swift breakthrough seemed to falter.
Despite huge international pressure, especially from Western powers, President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have still not met face-to-face since violence erupted after Kibaki's disputed re-election on December 30.
Odinga says mediation by AU chairman John Kufuor, the Ghanaian president, is the only way to end the chaos. He says Kibaki stole the December 27 election and must step down and make way for a new vote after a transitional period.
Kufuor left Accra on Tuesday and was due later in Nairobi.
But Kibaki, who has offered a government of national unity, is reluctant to accept mediation and has invited Odinga to alternative talks on Friday. Officials here said Kufuor would leave after barely 24 hours.
Odinga's opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) said it would reject any talks with Kibaki without a mediator.
"Mr Odinga has categorically ruled out any bilateral meeting with Mr Kibaki unless it is conducted through an international mediator," said the opposition leader's spokesman, Salim Lone.
Odinga called off nationwide protests to allow time for mediation to work, but says they will resume if it fails.
He says police have killed hundreds during protests.
ECONOMIC COST
As the two sides squabbled, to the dismay of many ordinary Kenyans, Finance Minister Amos Kimunya told Reuters he estimated the turmoil could have cost east Africa's biggest economy around $1 billion.
One of the worst crises since Kenya's independence from Britain in 1963 has also badly hit a swathe of central and east African countries dependent on Mombasa port on the Indian Ocean.
