"Yesterday, there were peace talks held in Dar es Salaam with the presence of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa and Tanzania," said deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

"In our view, these talks were useful," he said. "They are aimed at bringing Burundi towards a peaceful transition to democratic elections and a permanent constitution.

"We're optimistic that the peace process in Burundi remains on track," said Ereli. "Our focus is working with the UN and the parties to help support the UN (to) help support this process.

"What other countries might want to do at this point I think is something for debate and discussion in that forum, and we'll just see where it goes."

However, it emerged in Bujumbura Thursday that the power-sharing pact, signed in South Africa early this month, had been rejected by some parties in the Tutsi minority, fuelling fears that the region was on the brink of a new crisis.

The latest summit in Tanzania was overshadowed by Friday's massacre of 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees in a camp in western Burundi, for which the country's last active rebel movement has claimed responsibility.

The summit leaders had endorsed the power-sharing agreement "as the appropriate compromise and mechanism for ensuring ethnic balance in the spirit of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement," said an official summit statement.

WAR.WIRE