Bujumbura - Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye said in his New Year's message to the nation that a post-war armed forces chief of staff integrating former rebels is to be formed by next week.
In the televised message, Ndayizeye said former rebel fighters in Burundi's 10-year civil war must be cantoned by Monday, and the new army leadership made up of 40 percent former rebels will be in place by Wednesday.
"All the armed movements that signed (November ceasefire) accords should have finished cantoning their combatants by January 5, 2004, at the latest," Ndayizeye said.
"The integrated chief of staff, including ex-rebels, should be put in place before January 7," the president added.
The exercise mainly concerns the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), previously the largest rebel movement in the small central African country among six that signed the accords.
"These movements should have given the list of all their combatants to the commander of the African Force and the armed forces chief of staff and his deputy by the same date," Ndayizeye said.
The African Force is a peacekeeping operation deployed by the African Union to supervise the ceasefire in Burundi, whose civil war pitting Hutu rebels against the Tutsi-dominated army has claimed some 300 000 lives since 1993.
A small diehard rebel movement, the National Liberation Forces (FLN), has refused to join the peace process. - Sapa-AFP