Kigali — The nation-wide start of the trial phase in Rwanda's semi-traditional genocide courts that was due to start in February has been postponed by at least two months, a senior official told Hirondelle news agency on Tuesday.

"It is difficult to hold such a big operation at the same time as grass-roots elections", Gacaca spokesperson Innocent Musafiri said.

Starting February 3, Rwanda will hold a series of elections for local government leaders. The elections will run through to the beginning of March.

"After the elections, we will be nearing the genocide commemoration week, that too isn't a suitable time to start genocide trials at such a wide level", said Musafiri.

He said that while no date had been set, the trials would not begin before the end of the annual April 7 genocide anniversary.

Gacaca courts were set up over three years ago to speed up genocide trials and reconciliation.

Less than 10% of the 10,000 courts have reached trial stage. The rest have just completed a pre-trial investigation period.

Since the first trial in March 2005, 4000 judgments have been delivered by the courts.

Some observers say the nation-wide start of Gacaca trials could even be delayed further until a proposed new law on the structure of the courts is enacted by parliament.