"The government and the FNL will open negotiations in Dar es-Salaam in mid-March, the negotiation process is well advanced," said a diplomat who wanted to remain anonymous.

"It is the Tanzanian embassy in Burundi that is organising the talks which should take place in ten days' time," Burundi's presidential spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye said.

Six of the country's seven rebel movements have signed peace accord with the government and are now part of the transition leaving out the FNL still fighting in the country's western region.

"Our delegation is ready, our agenda is ready," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP on Friday without confirming or denying the planned negotiations.

"If the government is convinced now about the need to negotiate, we are ready to meet with them immediately if possible," Habimana said.

Early February, the FNL announced, for the first time ever, that it was ready to engage in negotiations with the government unconditionally.

The FNL reiterated the call for negotiation on February 25 but rejected possible negotiation by South Africa's Jacob Zuma, the current chief mediator of Burundi peace talks.

Up to now, nothing has come of talks between the government and the FNL. In 2003, Burundi's President Domitien Ndayizeye and an FNL delegation held two fruitless rounds of negotiations in Netherlands and in Kenya.

Tanzania, home to some 350,000 Burundi refugees, has played a significant role in the peace process launched by former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere.

The planned negotiations come only days after Burundi held landmark referendum aimed at ending a decade of violence and establishing a power-sharing strategy between the country's majority Hutu and minority Tutsis.

Shortly before the February 28 referendum, the FNL pledged not to disrupt the exercise and they lived up to their word.