Mediators trying to end 18 years of war in northern Uganda have urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to delay any planned war crimes indictments saying they could jeopardise peace efforts.
"We see the arrest warrant now as not an appropriate time," David Achana II, paramount chief of Uganda's northern Acholi tribe and leader of a delegation of mediators, said after three days of meetings at the ICC in The Hague.
Uganda has offered amnesty to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, but mediators fear the prospect of indictments by the ICC has stopped some top commanders surrendering.
Mr Achana, whose delegation met ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, denied rumours his mediators had wanted to petition the court not to issue any arrest warrants for the cult-like northern LRA and its leader, Joseph Kony.
"That is absolutely not true," he said, adding that he supported the ICC and its actions but that mediators needed more time before arrest warrants were issued.
"We are not encouraging impunity either, you know. We are saying the timing is not good just for the moment," he said.
Mr Moreno Ocampo said in January could issue warrants in less than six months for LRA rebels accused of massacres, rape and mutilations.
The surrender last month of two senior LRA officers, which followed the first face-to-face talks with the government for a decade, has raised hopes more rebels might leave the bush and accept a long-standing government amnesty. But the ICC might decide to indict several LRA officers.
Aid workers say some 700 youths are held hostage by LRA commanders and are forced to serve the group as fighters, porters and sex slaves.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni referred the conflict in his country to the court in December 2003. But he has since said if Mr Kony were to accept amnesty, Uganda would inform the ICC it had found a solution to its problem.