Accra, June 9, GNA - Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano on Thursday held closed-door discussions with President John Agyekum Kufuor at the Castle, Osu. In a brief remark before the talks, President Chissano said he was in Ghana as an envoy of Busumuru Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General. President Kufuor commended President Chissano for the useful work he had undertaken on the Continent after his retirement. He urged him to continue to be a successful Former President and an African Statesman.

In May, this year, Busumuru Annan appointed President Chissano as his special envoy tasked with ensuring "peaceful and credible" Presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau on June 19. The elections take place nearly two years after a military coup ousted President Kumba Yala. International observers hailed the Parliamentary polls held last year as free and fair. However, the former Mozambican Air Force Commander Joao Honwana, who is leading the UN Office for the Consolidation of Peace in Guinea-Bissau, has warned Busumuru Annan about a rise in tension as the elections approached in that country.

President Chissano stepped down as Mozambique's President in January, this year after 18 years in power, and his country like Guinea-Bissau was a former Portuguese colony. President Armando Guebuza succeeded him. The new President was sworn into office last February, after he had led President Chissano's Party, the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) Party to win the elections held on December 1 and December 2 2004. President Guebuza defeated Mr Afonso Dhlakama, of the Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO) Party, a former rebel movement in the civil war fought between 1976 and 1992.

FRELIMO had been in power since independence from Portugal in 1975. It won a landslide victory in the December elections had 160 seats in the 250 member-Parliament with 90 seats going to RENAMO.