"We're going to Mozambique and Ethiopia to ask for rapid deployment of their contingents within the FA (African Force)," the president told reporters at the airport.

"We're also going to answer any questions put to us by the authorities of these two countries."

Mozambique and Ethiopia have yet to send promised peacekeeping forces to join the 1,250 South African troops already on the ground in Burundi.

More than 300,000 people have so far died in the country's ten-year civil war, pitting Hutu rebels against their Tutsi rivals, who control the military and held sway over the government until an interim power-sharing regime was installed in November 2001.

The so-called African Force is supposed to comprise 2,870 soldiers: 1,600 South Africans, 980 Ethiopians and 290 Mozambicans.

But so far Ethiopia and Mozambique have sent only 26 officers between them.

"There are financing problems, but there are also problems linked to the understanding of the peace process in Burundi," Ndayizeye said, adding that Addis Abeba and Maputo should send their contingents in time to enforce a ceasefire currently under discussion between Burundi's warring factions.

On Tuesday, Burundi government delegates and representatives of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), the main Hutu rebel group, held talks with mediators on the application of a ceasefire agreement signed last December.

WAR.WIRE