Kenya 'needs troops to quell violence'

Kenya may need to deploy its army on the streets to quell political violence, a British minister said today.

British Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown, speaking from Ethiopia where the African Union summit is being held, said police in Kenya were no longer trusted following two killings of opposition lawmakers.

"I think an early area of agreement may need to be the deployment of Kenyan army forces, because until there is some semblance of law and order returned, it is very hard to see how the political negotiations can get real traction, even - and it's a big if - the two leaders want them to," he said.

He said he had detected "real alarm" among African leaders over the violence in Kenya between supporters of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who both claim to have won the country's recent national election.

"Wherever the two leaders look they are going to see a united international community saying sit down and deal with each other and stop this before your country spirals out of control," Lord Malloch-Brown said.

"Armies are not ideal to put into a situation of civil unrest because they don't have the training and skills of a police force," he said.

"But the police at this stage seem to be seen as no longer neutral and behind some of the killings.