By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, Kenya – The U.S. said Thursday it was barring 10 leading Kenyan politicians from both the president’s party and his rival’s, calling them “criminals” involved in postelection violence that has brought a country once considered among the most stable in Africa to the brink of collapse.

The U.S. announcement came as pressure mounted on negotiators from President Mwai Kibaki’s party and the main opposition to come to terms in peace talks mediated by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Opposition leaders say Kibaki stole a Dec. 27 vote and should step down. Kibaki has said his position as president is not negotiable, though foreign and local observers say there was election rigging. Clashes sparked by the dispute disintegrated into ethnic fighting pitting other tribes against Kibaki’s Kikuyu, and more than 1,000 have been killed and another 300,000 have fled their homes.

U.S. Embassy spokesman T.J. Dowling said legislators from both parties were advised in letters that they would not be allowed into the United States because they had been involved in or incited violence.

“We don’t give visas to criminals,” Dowling told The Associated Press. “Inciting violence is a criminal act.”

He declined to give names, but said they included legislators from both sides.

Kibaki’s Party of National Unity denied its politicians had incited violence or knew about the U.S. restrictions.

“I don’t know anything about this,” said Albert Muiruri, party secretary-general. “I can’t think of one PNU member of Parliament or top official who was involved in or incited violence.”

Members of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s party could not be reached for comment.

The U.N. Security Council deplored the violence and urged political leaders to resolve the crisis “through dialogue, negotiation and compromise.”

The council statement, issued in New York on Wednesday, expressed concern at the “dire humanitarian situation” in the country and gave strong backing to the Annan-led talks that began Jan. 29.

The European Union also expressed support for the talks.

Visiting EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel “had a very positive meeting with Kofi Annan in which he expressed the EU’s full commitment and support of the facilitation efforts,” EU spokesman John Clancy said in Brussels.

Later Thursday, Michel was to meet separately with Kibaki and Odinga.

Also, foreign ministers of IGAD, an east African bloc of countries, arrived to meet the peace negotiating team, including government and opposition members. But they canceled a planned foreign ministers’ meeting to which Odinga’s party had objected, saying holding such a meeting would have implicitly recognized Kibaki’s government.

Last week at a meeting in Ethiopia, IGAD decided it would send a delegation to Nairobi this week to show support for the peace process and would also hold a foreign minister’s meeting in Nairobi Thursday.

Heads of state from five East African countries also were expected in Nairobi to hold a special summit in an expression of support for Annan’s peace process.

A UN fact-finding mission arrived in Kenya on Wednesday to assess allegations of grave human rights violations during the fighting, which in many cases turned into ethnic clashes.

The three-week mission – sent by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour – will gather information from the government and the opposition, along with victims and witnesses. The findings will be made public.

The top U.S. diplomat for Africa said last month she saw the violence as ethnic cleansing, but the State Department backed away from her statement, saying the U.S. had not yet concluded whether atrocities had been committed.

A top UN relief agency official was to arrive Friday to assess the humanitarian situation. John Holmes, from the humanitarian affairs and emergency relief department would also meet government and opposition leaders, the UN said.

Fighting has continued in western Kenya, scene of some of the worst postelection clashes. On Thursday, police said an officer accused of killing two demonstrators last month in Kisumu, western Kenya, will be charged with murder.
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Associated Press writers Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this report.