Comoros separatists in surprise move to end crisis

MORONI, Comoros (Reuters) -- Anjouan delegates have held a surprise meeting with the Comoros government in an apparent move to end the crisis over the breakaway Indian Ocean island's secession from the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros.

Comoran officials said on Sunday that delegates of Anjouan, which declared itself independent three years ago, met Comoran officials on Moheli island on Saturday. Moheli also declared itself independent in 1997, but later recanted.

Comoran government sources said the two sides had agreed to work to resolve the constitutional crisis. Further talks would be held on Anjouan within the next few days to suggest how the island could be politically reunited with main island Grande Comore and Moheli.

The sources said the Comoran government had dropped its insistence that Anjouan accept a formula for a federal system, drawn up in the Madagascar capital of Antananarivo last year.

Anjouan rejects the Antananarivo agreement, and the Speaker of the Anjouan assembly, Saindou Cheikh, was quoted by a local TV station on Saturday as saying this position would not change.

The Moheli meeting was seen in the Comoran capital of Moroni as a victory for the Anjouan secessionists, who say they are only prepared to consider proposals for a confederation as a basis for restoring links with Moroni.

But a former Comoran prime minister and current opposition leader, Abbas Djoussouf, told Reuters on Sunday: "These manoeuvres confirm our suspicion that (Comoros President) Colonel Azaly Assoumani wants to remain in power at any cost."

Azaly's seizure of power in a military coup last year has been condemned by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Azaly's opponents say he wants to boost his claim to the presidency by settling the Anjouan secession issue.

When they announced their secession in 1997, Anjouan and Moheli leaders said independence from France in 1975 had brought the Comorans only poverty and political chaos. This contrasted with the prosperity enjoyed by neighbouring Mayotte island, which voted to remain French in 1975.

France has refused to support suggestions that Anjouan should return to France.

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