Peace talks between Burma's largest ethnic Karen rebel group and the junta will be delayed until after May because the government is busy reconvening the National Convention, a senior Karen leader said.

The Karen National Union, or KNU, reached a tentative ceasefire agreement with the military regime last December when the two parties met for the first round of peace talks. The Karen group, which has been fighting for autonomy from Rangoon for 55 years, was scheduled to resume talks in late April to work out a formal agreement.

Chief of the KNU foreign affairs committee, David Taw, said the KNU informed the junta that it was ready to hold the talks at the end of April. The military government responded by saying that it is busy with preparations for holding the National Convention, he added.

The military government is preparing to reconvene the National Convention on May 17 to draw up a new constitution. The convention is the first step of Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt’s seven-step road map to democracy, announced last August.

David Taw couldn’t say the exact date the talks would resume since it is unknown how long the convention will take. If the talks resume, discussions will touch on military demarcation to reduce casual skirmishes between the two sides, he continued.

Though the KNU has reached an informal agreement with the junta, casual skirmishes have broken out between the two sides.

Recently, the KNU sent a delegation of four members to Rangoon to celebrate the water festival Thingyan, in a bid to boost relations with the junta. During the trip the delegate met with the junta’s military spokesperson, Col San Pwint, but political issues were not discussed, David Taw said.