Kenyan rivals sign agreement

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki andopposition leader Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing agreementon Thursday intended to end a post-election crisis that left1,000 people dead.

Crowds of onlookers clapped as the two rivals inked a dealat a televised ceremony to set up a coalition government andcreate a prime minister's post for Odinga after negotiationsmediated by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan.

The two leaders had come under intense pressure tocompromise over Kibaki's disputed re-election in a December 27vote, which forced 300,000 people to flee their homes amidethnic violence and severely damaged Kenya's reputation as astable regional economic hub.

Besides the prime minister's job Odinga has sought since hehelped first elect Kibaki in 2002, the deal will also givecabinet posts based on each party's strength in parliament.

Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has the largestnumber of seats.

Cabinet portfolios would be balanced along the same lines,Annan said.

"Compromise was necessary for the survival of thiscountry," Annan said after the signing.

"I commend all those whose efforts have made this possible... they kept the future of Kenya always in their sights andreached a common position for the good of the nation."

The deal also includes a full review of the constitution, a45-year-old document which many Kenyans have pushed to changesince the 1990s because it gives the president nearly totalauthority over the affairs of state.

'NATIONAL UNITY'

Thursday's talks brought Odinga and Kibaki to the sametable for the first time in a month, after discussions betweentheir parties hit a deadlock earlier in the week.

"As a nation there are more issues that unite than divideus. We've been reminded we must do all in our power tosafeguard the peace that is the foundation of our nationalunity ... Kenya has room for all of us," Kibaki said in hisspeech afterward.

A beaming Odinga said: "We have opened a new chapter in ourhistory, from the era of confrontation to the beginning ofcooperation."

"We should begin to ensure that Kenyans begin to celebrateand love each other, that we destroy the monster that is calledethnicity," he said.

In his opposition stronghold of Kisumu on the shores ofLake Victoria in Kenya's west, residents took to the streetscelebrating and ululating over the deal, witnesses said.

The crisis exploded after Kibaki was sworn in on December30 and Odinga claimed the election was rigged.

Kibaki said he won fairly and blamed his rival for incitingviolence and unrest instead of going to court to challenge theresult -- the closest in Kenya's post-independence history.

Protests turned into riots and looting sprees met with aforceful police response and simultaneously, ethnic attacks byopposition backers on Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe exploded and laterunleashed reprisal killings that left at least 1,000 dead.

As the talks got bogged down last week, the oppositionthreatened to hold more street protests -- its only realleverage left -- but Odinga called them off after Annan, aformer U.N. secretary-general, asked him to do so.

(Additional reporting by Wangui Kanina, Jack Kimball,Daniel Wallis, George Obulutsa and Bryson Hull; Writing byBryson Hull; Editing by Giles Elgood)

(For in depth coverage on Reuters Africa Web site:http://africa.reuters.com/elections/kenya/ )