NAIROBI (AP):

The United States said yesterday it was threatening to bar 10 leading Kenyan politicians and businessmen - with ties to both the president's party and his rival's - from entering the United States, as international pressure mounted on talks to resolve the political crisis over disputed elections and to end violence.

President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity and the opposition Orange Democratic Movement denied being behind the clashes, looting and arson that have caused more than 1,000 deaths and forced 300,000 Kenyans from their homes.

The US announcement - the first time Washington has blamed leading politicians for the violence - came as pressure mounted on negotiators from the rival parties to come to terms in peace talks mediated by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Clashes

Opposition leaders say Kibaki stole a December 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.

US Embassy spokesman TJ Dowling said lawmakers from both parties were advised 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."

Letters sent

Ambassador Michael Ranneberger told foreign journalists that letters had been sent to the politicians and businessmen and their families threatening a ban, which had not yet been imposed.

"What we have said is that people involved in inciting, supporting or perpetrating violence must be held accountable and, for our part, as the United States of America, we will hold them accountable by not providing visas," Ranneberger said.

Britain said it could take similar steps.

"We have in the past excluded Kenyan politicians and businessmen on the grounds of corruption. We have the ability to do so and nothing has been ruled out," a British Foreign Office spokesperson said on condition of anonymity, in keeping with the ministry's regulations.

A Canadian official also said his country was applying similar visa restrictions.

The Standard Daily on Thursday quoted Canadian High Commissioner Ross Hynes as saying that Canada wanted to pass "a strong message to the politicians that the ban is real and will happen".