STRASBOURG -The European Parliament said yesterday the bloc should freeze budgetary aid to Kenya until the crisis over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election is solved.

The European Parliament "asks for the freezing of all further budgetary support to the government of Kenya until a political resolution to the present crisis has been found", the MPs said in a resolution.

Although EU aid to Kenya is limited compared with what it gives poorer African countries, the European Union is one of Nairobi’s top donors, providing 290 million euros between 2002 and 2007. A further 383 million euros of EU aid to Kenya is planned for 2008-2013.

The EU is reviewing its relations with Kenya, and studying which actions to take if current African mediation efforts fail.

EU Aid and Development Commissioner Louis Michel said on Wednesday budgetary aid could be suspended if the crisis remained unsolved.

Condemning the violence in a crisis that has killed hundreds, the lawmakers said the result of the election was not credible and called for a fresh vote if a fair recount was not possible.

The parliament said it was "deeply preoccupied by the social repercussions of the current economic crisis, its detrimental effect on the country’s socio-economic development and the economic consequences for neighbouring countries".

Lawmakers criticised the EU executive for disbursing 40.6 million euros of budgetary aid on December 28, a day after the election. Michel said the aid had been disbursed before doubts over the results had emerged.

The disputed election has dented Kenya’s democratic credentials and rattled donors. Post-election turmoil, in which hundreds have been killed, has hit Kenya’s economy as well as supplies to east and central African neighbours.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s opposition accused police of shooting dead seven people yesterday during a second day of clashes with demonstrators over the disputed election.

In the capital, Nairobi, and the western towns of Kisumu and Eldoret, police fired teargas and bullets on the second of three days of banned rallies called by opposition leader Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). Odinga, who accuses Kibaki of stealing victory in the December 27 ballot, said police shot dead seven people in Nairobi. "Police are shooting innocent civilians at will ... the government has turned this country into a killing field of innocents," he told reporters.

Police had no immediate comment but in the past have said that its officers have shot ODM supporters engaged in looting.

In three weeks since the vote, violence pitting police against protesters and opposition gangs against tribes seen as pro-Kibaki has caused about 620 deaths.

Agencies