He was speaking after the government said it had agreed to an immediate end to fighting, in a declaration welcomed by east-African leaders in Nairobi.
The Incheon Declaration was welcomed by the global education community, including government ministers from more than 100 countries, non-governmental organizations and youth groups.
The declaration has been welcomed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India, who said his government was ready for talks, but it has drawn sharp criticism from other militants.
The rebel declaration was welcomed in Burundi as major step forward in efforts to end the conflict and conclude a reconciliation process, including elections later this year.
Conservation groups welcomed the declaration, which WWF described as strong-worded, and the Environmental Investigation Agency said contained "meaningful actions".
Amina Mohamed, Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said she and other African diplomats welcomed the declaration, while acknowledging its limitations.
US President George Bush yesterday cautiously welcomed the declaration but warned North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, that it faced "consequences" if it did not fully disclose its operations and continue to dismantle its nuclear programmes.
There are few expressions of humility or openness, even of the sort that Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston managed to make clearly in a statement that welcomed the declaration enthusiastically.
Grounded in ancient history and the works of the French philosophers of the Enlightenment, he welcomed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which formed the preamble of the French constitution of September 3, 1791, and he insisted that all laws should conform to it.
