DAR ES SALAAM, Dec. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Tanzania has urged Burundi to honor the Arusha peace accord or it is to stop receiving any more Burundian refugees from across the border, according to a Tanzanian presidential statement available here on Sunday.

    The statement quoted Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapaas saying that recent developments in Burundi where the incumbent transitional leadership is maneuvering to change the constitution and is faltering on calling the re-scheduled referendum on the constitution were unacceptable.

    It added that Tanzania would not take any more Burundian refugees if the interim leadership fails to abide by the peace accord signed in 2000 in Tanzania's northern city of Arusha.

    President Mkapa issued the warning while attending a highway construction ceremony in southeastern Tanzania.

    According to the timetable about the transition of Burundi to democracy, the interim leadership should call the rescheduled referendum on the constitution on December 22-23.

    "But from what I have heard, they (the Burundi interim leaders)have already postponed the exercise to allow the current leadership to vie for positions, long before they have the consentof the Burundians," said the president.

    The 2000 Arusha peace accord bars either Domitien Ndayizeye or his predecessor Pierre Buyoya at the helm of the interim leadership from seeking elections to power now scheduled for Aprilnext year.

    President Mkapa warned that if reports of the incumbent interimleadership seeking elections to power is true, Burundi's democratization process could be bogged down to renewed conflicts which in turn will spark off new waves of refugees whom Tanzania would not accept anymore, according to the presidential statement.

    Tanzania is now hosting over 500,000 Burundian refugees, mostlyin its northwestern regions bordering the central African state. Enditem