Kampala — President Yoweri has reacted to Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony's terms for peace talks, saying he must do what he (Museveni) says.

In an end-of-year message to the nation, Museveni said, "The option of peace exists for the Kony bandits. Let them do what I told them to do: go to the borderline and engage in talks with the Government negotiating team led by the Rt. Hon. Eriya Kategaya."

Museveni, now overseeing the the UPDF's anti-Kony Operation Iron Fist, named the peace delegation five months ago.

"Short of that I will pursue them until the end. 2003 will definitely be the year of peace in Uganda whatever the goings-on in the region. Salutations to all of you. Strategic challenges and peace. That is the slogan of 2003," Museveni said.

"We have achieved a lot in the last eight months. I will give an update on the details in the next two weeks. Nevertheless, it suffices to inform you for now that Kony gangs are greatly weakened. They had press-ganged about 2,500 boys and girls as slave soldiers, by the time we started the offensive in April 2002," he said.

"My estimate of those remaining now is about 500 youths with rifles. Hundreds others have been liberated. More importantly, we have completely uprooted the bandits from their permanent bases in the Sudan. In Uganda, they have no bases. They are nomadic bandits.

"We are working methodically to corner each of these bandits and eliminate them," he said.

The 15-year long insurgency took a new turn last Saturday when a man claiming to be the LRA chief, telephoned the Gulu-based Mega FM radio, calling for direct talks with Museveni.

But the Minister for the Presidency, Prof Gilbert Bukenya, who is also a member of the Government's negotiating team, said Kony must name his negotiating team first.

Bukenya, who said Kony was merely playing about with words, added, "If talks with Kony progress well and there is need for the President and Kony to meet, that can be organised.

"The issue is Kony fulfiling the conditions laid down by the Government, which include Kony naming his delegation for the talks.

"Kony should know that for a good peace agreement, both sides must talk and the leaders only come to endorse the agreement," Bukenya argued.

Attorney General Francis Ayume said Kony was not serious. "Kony was given a direct phone line to the State House. Why doesn't he use it instead of ringing the radio station?"

But Kony, speaking in Luo, said, "I have not refused any means for bringing peace but the way the Government is taking me is not good. It is not the way to bring peace.

"Now you the Acholi, I want you to know that everybody is clever. If we were stupid, we would not accept Archbishop Odama and other peace envoys, including those from the Jimmy Carter Centre, to come to us in the bush.

"We would not fight the Government which is a super power. I am intelligent and want to bring peace. We are not fighting Acholi but fighting the Government," Kony said.

The Gulu RDC Max Omeda and the Gulu District chairperson, Lt Col Walter Ochora, confirmed that the caller was indeed Kony.

Omeda challenged Kony to stop the war saying his (Acholi) people had suffered.