U.S. wants Kenya solution "yesterday"

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Kenya's feuding parties on Monday to hurry up with a pact to end a post-election crisis that has killed 1,000 people and dented their nation's global status.

"The time for a political settlement was yesterday," Rice said after meeting separately with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga during her one-day visit.

"The current stalemate and the circumstances are not going to permit business as usual with the United States or with any other part of the international community."

Dispatched to Kenya by President George W. Bush during his Africa tour, Rice was the most senior U.S. official to visit since the disputed December 27 vote triggered protests and ethnic conflict that also displaced more than 300,000.

"They need to have a power-sharing arrangement ... There needs to be a coalition," she said, echoing the line being pushed by mediator and former U.N. boss Kofi Annan.

Odinga says Kibaki, for whom he once served in cabinet, stole the 2007 election through fraud.

Kibaki's team says its man won fairly and points to the official declaration by the election board.

The election crisis took the lid off grievances between different communities over wealth, land and power that date back to British colonial rule and have been aggravated by Kenyan politicians since then, especially at election time.