The opposition leader Raila Odinga said he's ready to open negotiations with President Mwai Kibaki. "We are willing to walk the extra mile to find a solution," he said.

Raila Odinga, Kenya's opposition leader

ANDREW MARR: Mr Odinga welcome and thank you very much for joining us. Can I ask you�

RAILA ODINGA: Thank you. Thank you very much.

ANDREW MARR: You've rejected the call for a government of national unity, but you have said that you are prepared to talk.

So is it, to be clear, the case that the president no longer has to stand down before you're prepared to open discussions?

RAILA ODINGA: Not at all. We have actually said that we are ready to dialogue in order to find a lasting solution to the crisis. But the genesis of this problem is the election of fraud which meant that the loser unfairly was declared the winner. This is what we need to address.

ANDREW MARR: And you're prepared to sit - would you be prepared to actually sit down with Mr Kibaki face to face and discuss this problem before either he has stood down or announced that the election is unacceptable and a fraud and said that he's prepared to hold another one?

RAILA ODINGA: Yes. No we are ready because the crisis is very grave. And because of this we are willing to walk the extra mile in order to find a solution. We are willing to sit down with Mr Kibaki in the presence of an internationally recognised mediator so that we can put our thumbs on the table.

Mr Kibaki can remain there on the basis of the old mandate. Because he knows that he was illegitimately sworn in as the president despite the fact that the Chairman of the Election Commission has since said that he was forced under duress to declare the false results.

ANDREW MARR: Well this sounds like the beginning of a breakthrough. Do you know who the mediator will be? You've talked to Gordon Brown in Britain, you've talked to the Americans. Is that now in hand?

RAILA ODINGA: Yes. When I talked to Gordon Brown - and I really want to thank him for the concern that he's shown on Kenyan crisis - he, they have suggested three names. Kofi Annan, the President Kufuor of Ghana and the former president Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone.

We are saying that we preferred Annan. But the ... have eventually settled on President John Kufuor of Ghana. We understand that the government here was not comfortable and have refused him to come. But I hear that after a lot of international pressure John Kufuor is likely to be here either tomorrow or on Tuesday.

ANDREW MARR: And these talks, if they led to, one of the suggestions coming from the British Foreign Secretary for instance has been for a power-sharing government. Is that the kind of thing you'd be prepared to talk about at this stage?

RAILA ODINGA: Well we don't mind the issue of power sharing. But I want it to be known that the problem is to establish who the winner was on these elections. I mean like for example in Britain you have this question of where the Tory or the Labour may win by a narrow margin.

But I don't think that the winner must be forced at all costs to bring in the loser. You've had hung parliament also in the UK. But in order to resolve the crisis we are willing to talk and then in those processes I am willing to even incorporate Mr Kibaki in the government.

ANDREW MARR: Can I finally ask you about those terrible scenes of violence which have horrified the world. Some of your supporters have been implicated in the violence as well as supporters of the government. The last thing that we heard was that your supporters were being asked to come back out onto the streets on Tuesday. That must bring risk of further violence. Are you calling for them now to stay at home?

RAILA ODINGA: We have said that we don't want any kind of violence. We detest violence and we're saying it's very unfortunate that so many people have lost their lives. Of course quite a number of those people have been victims of the shooting by the police to kill. Our people are peaceful.

They are carrying out peaceful demonstrations and rallies in the country. But we need to focus on the genesis of this problem which is that we have a president who has refused to recognise the will of the people. That he belongs the league of Mr Robert Mugabe ... leadership that really needs to exit the scene and African continent�

ANDREW MARR: But you ..

RAILA ODINGA: �and if you don't find a solution.

ANDREW MARR: Sorry, I beg your pardon Mr Odinga but your own supporters, I must just put to you, were implicated in that terrible incident where people were burned alive in a church. Do you accept any responsibility for what's happened?

RAILA ODINGA: Not at all. You need to understand that ethnic clashes have been going on in Kenya for the last seventeen years. And even during the campaigns there were clashes in Kuresoy, in Molo, in Mount Elgon area.

The government has been unable to resolve them. So this burning of the church has nothing to do with the protest that's been carried out. Those are activities of other groups.

ANDREW MARR: Mr Odinga thank you very much indeed for joining us and good luck to everybody obviously with these talks happening next week.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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