General Germain Niyoyankana, the army chief of staff, said that "1,200 men making up the first unit of the FDN will begin their training at the Bururi centre" in the south of the central African country.

The training of the soldiers, who will include 380 fighters from the ex-rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy, is scheduled to last six months, and they will be known as the Special Unit for the Protection of Institutions, the general said late Monday.

Burundi's transitional government and the FDD signed an overall peace accord laying the groundwork for the new army on November 16 last year. Its general staff, 40 percent of which consists of FDD officers, was created two months ago.

"This is a very important step in the implementation of the overall accord," General Adolphe Ndayishimiye, deputy chief of staff anf former head of the FDD, told AFP.

"But this is only the beginning, since there's a long road to take before we have the FDN," he added.

South African soldiers already stationed at Bururi will take part in the training programme, said an army officer who asked not to be named.

The African Union (AU) in March 2002 deployed a peacekeeping force in Burundi, made up of 2,700 soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

One rebel movement out of seven, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), has to date rejected any negotiations with the government. The others, like the country's political parties, have signed peace deals.

Niyoyankana said that the Burundian government troops to take part in the new unit were already at the training camp. The former rebel fighters due to join them were gathered in the Kamenge district of northern Bujumbura.

The Special Unit to undergo training "will be increased in size to 1,250 men when other rebel movements agree to take up the 50 posts we have set aside for them in it", the general added.

In the long term, Burundi's army is due to consist of representatives of the country's Hutu majority, making up 85 percent of the population, and of the minority Tutsis on a proportional basis. Traditionally, the army has been dominated by Tutsis.

The African peacekeeping force is the first to be deployed on the continent in the name of the new African Union, which has been slowly taking shape since the turn of the century in place of the now defunct, post-colonial Organisation of African Unity.

The AU is intended to be a more streamlined and powerful body than its predecessor.

After a decade of civil war which claimed about 300,000 lives, mainly those of civilians, peace has been restored to 16 of Burundi's 17 provinces.

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