A delegation sent by the U.N.'s top human rights official began a mission Wednesday to look into reports of brutality and serious abuses in the weeks of deadly violence since the country's disputed presidential election. More than 1,000 people have died since the Dec. 27 election, many at the hands of thugs armed with machetes or bows with poisoned arrows. The election, which foreign and local observers say was rigged, returned President Mwai Kibaki to power for a second five-year term after opposition leader Raila Odinga's lead evaporated overnight. U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq, at U.N. headquarters in New York, confirmed that the fact-finding mission had arrived Wednesday.

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

"Truth and accountability are of critical importance in putting an end to the violence and preventing future human rights violations," Arbour said in a statement.

The arrival of the fact-finding mission came as the U.N. Security Council issued a statement deploring the violence in Kenya and urged political leaders to resolve the crisis over disputed elections through "dialogue, negotiation and compromise."

The violence has been shockingly brutal in a country once considered among the most stable in Africa. The top U.S. diplomat for Africa said last month that she saw the violence as ethnic cleansing. The State Department backed away from her statement, saying the U.S. had not yet concluded whether atrocities had been committed.

Aside from clashes with police, much of the fighting has been between rival ethnic groups and much of the anger is aimed at Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy.

Odinga is demanding a new election, but Kibaki has refused, arguing his re-election was fair.

The violence continued in western Kenya, the scene of some of the worst postelection clashes.

Police said they fired to disperse hundreds of residents who had barricaded the gates of the police station in Litein, 145 miles west of Nairobi, on Tuesday. Two teachers were killed.

In a forest nearby, officers on Wednesday retrieved 18 bodies with gunshot wounds and machetes cuts. They had been killed in four days of clashes between rival gangs which police stopped by throwing grenades.

Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement threatened to organize more mass rallies to stop a gathering of African foreign ministers in Nairobi. Ahmed Hashi, an ODM spokesman, did not say when or where the protests would take place or what other measures the party planned.

The opposition is upset at not being consulted over the plans for Thursday's meeting of the foreign ministers from an East African bloc known as IGAD, which Kibaki heads.

The opposition's previous protests have turned violent, with police firing tear gas and live bullets to break up crowds. "The (threat) of a mass rally stands," Hashi said, adding the party "will make sure that they do not meet here."

"This government is an illegitimate one and the arrival of the ministers means recognizing an illegitimate government," he said. "Let them go elsewhere."

Last month, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, managed to bring together Kibaki and Odinga who agreed to peace talks aimed at breaking the political impasse and ending weeks of postelection violence.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the talks were going forward. "The most important thing for us is that these two parties work together to end the violence and to arrive at the kind of political settlement that they agree to, whether that's a power sharing arrangement or some other kind of outcome," he said.

On Tuesday, the two sides began discussing deeper political issues, which Annan said would be tough. But progress was possible - "there are no hard-liners in the talks," he told reporters. The talks, expected to last two weeks, continued Wednesday.

---

Associated Press writers Malkhadir M. Muhumed and Matti Huuhtanen in Nairobi contributed to this report.

Written By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY