Nairobi  - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki have signed a deal to set up a local tribunal to try politicians and businessmen accused of orchestrating this year's post-election violence.

The deal was signed hours before the midnight deadline given by a commission headed by Justice Philip Waki.

Waki in October handed down the deadline to create a local tribunal to try those named in an envelope Waki handed over to former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

The envelope would have been handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the deadline had not been met.

However, parliament now has only 45 days to pass the legislation that will allow the tribunal to begin operation by March, or the envelope will end up in The Hague.

More than 1,500 people died in clashes between rival tribes affiliated to political parties during the post-election violence earlier this year.

Hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes as a campaign of murder, revenge attacks, rapes and the razing of homes swept the country.

The clashes were prompted by Orange Democratic Movement leader Odinga's accusation that Kibaki's Party of National Unity had rigged the elections.

Calm returned after several months and a deal negotiated by Annan saw the creation of a power-sharing government, with Odinga sworn in as prime minister in April.

This week MPs also voted to disband the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) - a key recommendation of another commission led by South African judge Johann Kriegler.

Kriegler's commission, which presented its results in September, found evidence of widespread bribery, vote-buying, intimidation and ballot-stuffing. (dpa)