Sombre ceremonies took place in Rwanda on Wednesday to remember the victims of genocide - 10 years to the day the massacres began.

Commemorations started with the inauguration of a new memorial in the capital Kigali, where several recently exhumed bodies were symbolically re-buried.

Several foreign heads of state and government, mostly from Africa, attended the ceremonies. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was the only Western leader present.

Rwanda's president lit a flame that will burn for 100 days at the new national memorial centre.

Today's ceremonies mark the beginning of a week of mourning for the 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed over the course of 100 days in 1994.

A new monument to the 10 Belgian peacekeepers killed at the start of the massacres is also being unveiled.