FORMER South African president Nelson Mandela was holding intensive talks in Tanzania in a last-minute bid to bridge deep gaps among Burundi’s warring political factions. With only one day left before a historic power-sharing deal is due to be signed, he was pressing all sides to overcome their differences. Tanzanian officials in Arusha said Mandela was holding private consultations individually with delegations from the Burundi government, the parliament and 17 political parties. ”So far we are still on course for the signing. Nothing has happened that can deflect us,” Mark Bomani, a senior Tanzanian official involved in the talks said. Nearly two-dozen world leaders, including President Clinton, are expected to witness the signing on Monday. However 10 pro-government Tutsi political parties said on Saturday they would not sign the accord as it stands because they believe it could lead to genocide against Tutsis by the majority Hutus. More than 200000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Burundi since 1993 in a wave of massacres and clashes between the country’s mainly-Tutsi army and Hutu rebels. Mandela will also chair a meeting of regional heads of state who imposed sanctions on Burundi after current President Pierre Buyoya seized power in a 1996 coup. The embargo was lifted in 1999 in recognition of progress made at the Arusha talks, which began in June 1998. – Reuters