Minister of External Relations and Cooperation Antoinette Batumubwira of Burundi

While speaking of bilateral relations between Burundi and China, Batumubwira said that the bilateral relations between the two countries are excellent.

In late 2007, Batumubwira was named as a candidate to succeed Alpha Oumar Konaré as Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union in the election for that post in early 2008.

Batumubwira said that Burundi and China have enjoyed a tradition of friendship.

The commission has agreed to ask the African Union commission and United Nations to impose sanctions on identified leaders of rebel groups," Burundi's Foreign Affairs Minister Antoinette Batumubwira said in a joint communique for Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda as well as Burundi.

Ms Batumubwira said the countries, whose ministers met in Burundi's capital, were committed to pursuing disarmament.

Ms Batumubwira said the ministers had called for a travel ban on FNL leaders and fundraising sanctions.

Foreign Minister Antoinette Batumubwira said Bujumbura did not want to see a repeat of Tuesday's incident in which the soldier was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu.

Batumubwira said the request to recall Satti had begun several months ago.

Batumubwira said the commission would continue setting up joint border verification mechanisms to curb the movement of members of these armed groups from one country to another.

Batumubwira said Burundi still considers the FNL a negative force because it had not changed its stand since it was declared a terrorist group by heads of state at a summit held in Kampala, Uganda.

Batumubwira said Belgium's aid was a sign of solidarity with the country.

Batumubwira said the funding would benefit areas identified as priority sectors.

Burundi's Foreign Minister Antoinette Batumubwira said up to 40 percent of the UN.

Batumubwira said a decision on how the remaining UN.

Foreign Minister Batumubwira has a special relationship with Finland, since she used to live in Vantaa in 2002-2005 and she speaks Finnish.

Antoinette Batumubwira has studied integration measures in Vantaa.