LA PAZ, Sept 17: President Evo Morales and Bolivia’s opposition governors were set on Wednesday to start negotiating an end to a violent political crisis that has left at least 18 people dead.

The governor of the natural gas-rich Tarija province on Tuesday signed a deal on the issues to be discussed with the socialist government, on behalf of other autonomy-seeking governors.

Facilitators for the talks to begin on Thursday include the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Roman Catholic church, European Union and the United Nations, officials sources said.

“I hope this will be the beginning of a broad national agreement so that we can give our people peace,” said Mario Cossio, Tarija governor and spokesman for five rebel governors.

Cossio finally agreed to the talks despite the arrest of a northern governor accused of setting off clashes which led to the deaths of some 16 farmers in Pando province.

Bolivia’s enduring political conflict blew up into deadly street violence last week as Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, struggled to assert his authority over the eastern half of his country.

Tuesday’s deal requires anti-Morales protesters to cede control of government buildings and gas pipeline installations, and sets out a return to order and an impartial inquiry into the Pando massacre, the government said.

The rival factions agreed to avoid discussing a draft constitution, which Morales is seeking to rewrite along socialist lines, during the talks.

The governors are also seeking for Morales to abandon land reforms and recognize their ambitions for autonomy.

Dialogue froze between the two sides some eight months ago, and violence has once again flared in recent weeks in the divided country, the poorest in South America.

The US government, citing growing concerns about the unrest, offered on Tuesday to arrange to fly US citizens out of La Paz after pulling out volunteers in the Peace Corps development programme.

In further diplomatic deterioration, US President George W. Bush on Tuesday declared that Bolivia had “failed demonstrably” to fight cocaine production and placed it on a counter-narcotics blacklist along with Venezuela and Myanmar.

The decision came only days after Morales expelled the US ambassador from Bolivia, accusing him of supporting the country’s political opposition.

Washington denied the accusations.

Russia meanwhile on Wednesday condemned as “unacceptable” any attempts at outside interference in the unrest in Bolivia and said the country’s territorial integrity should be protected.

Bolivia’s social and political conflict pits the impoverished indigenous majority of the Andean highlands against a more ethnically mixed and relatively prosperous eastern lowlands, where natural gas reserves are located.—AFP