Dakar - Senegal's former prime minister, Idrissa Seck, who had announced he would challenge President Abdoulaye Wade in elections next month after a break between them, agreed on Monday to rejoin the ruling party, Wade said.
The agreement, reached after a long meeting between the two men, appeared to put an end to a major split in the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) which had led to allegations that the president was seeking to eliminate a possible political rival.
Seck, a popular prime minister until Wade sacked him in 2004, spent more than six months in custody on charges of embezzlement and threatening state security. He denied the accusations and was released in February last year.
Wade, who is 80, has already announced he will stand for re-election for a second term in the election on February 25.
"Mr Seck contests all those accusations (against him) and has said that nobody can provide the slightest proof of them," Wade said at the presidential palace after the meeting.
"I am the head of the family and my role is to bring back all my sons, whatever they can be reproached for ... He (Seck) has agreed to come back to the party," he told reporters.
Seck made no immediate comments. But observers said they expected his return to the ruling PDS party would mean him dropping his plans to run against Wade next month.
Although several opposition candidates have declared they will stand for the presidency, Wade is expected to win re-election.
Since independence from France in 1960, Senegal has maintained a reputation for political stability in a region infamous for military takeovers and civil wars.