By Susanna Loof
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Aug. 31, 2000; 9:17 a.m. EDT

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa –– The warring parties in Burundi's civil war have been invited to a Sept. 20 meeting in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss a cease-fire, former President Nelson Mandela said Thursday.

Mandela spoke three days after six of Burundi's Tutsi political parties, Burundian President Pierre Buyoya and a representative of the Burundian army signed a hastily prepared document in Arusha, Tanzania.

The country's rebels neither attended nor signed, and the accord lacked agreement on two significant issues – when a cease-fire should take place and who would lead a three year transitional government – dashing Burundian's hopes for an immediate end to the violence which has cost more than 200,000 lives, most civilians.

Despite its shortcomings, Mandela labeled the document "a major step towards peace" and a "comprehensive political agreement."

"Already the agreement has contributed to the lessening of tensions so that we can focus the people of Burundi on planning ahead with the view to improve the economy of the country," Mandela said.

Mandela, who has mediated the peace process, said he has invited Buyoya, the Tutsi army and two rebel groups to the Nairobi meeting. It was not yet clear who would accept the invitation.

"We are pressing, piling up the pressure whilst the ink on this agreement is still not dry," Mandela said. "We don't want the momentum to wither. We want to ... arrive at a decision as soon as possible."

Though not expecting a cease-fire agreement to be signed during the Nairobi meeting, Mandela said he was certain that one would be signed eventually.

Tutsis dominate the army and the economy of Hutu-majority Burundi. Civil war broke out in 1993 upon the assassination of the central African nation's first and only democratically elected president, a Hutu. Fighting since then has killed 200,000 people in the nation of roughly 6 million.

Mandela called the parties that did not sign "insignificant from the point of view of numbers."

"But of course, we don't say in negotiations of this nature, (that) we are going to ignore certain parties because they happen to be the smallest. We do want them to sign," he said.

The non-signers have been invited to come to South Africa for further discussions, Mandela said.

He said the major parties had agreed to his suggestion that the transitional government initially should be led by a Tutsi. Mandela has proposed that a Tutsi lead for six months, while Buyoya has argued that a Tutsi should lead for half the transitional period. Buyoya has agreed to step down if a Tutsi is allowed to lead the first half, Mandela said.