NAIROBI - Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania will sign an agreement to start the East African Common Market in November, enabling the union to begin in January 2010, Kenyan Trade Minister Amos Kimunya said.

"We have made highly impressive progress and will sign the protocol by November,” Kimunya said in an interview with Johannesburg-based CNBC Africa television today.

He said three outstanding issues concerning travel documentation, rights for permanent residents and the right of establishment in any of the three countries "had been resolved, to the extent that local laws will apply.”

The agreement seeks to promote free trade and movement of people between the five East African nations.

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