ELDORET, KENYA -- For the first time since Kenya exploded into election-related violence that has killed more than 400 people and dented this country's image of stability, the President and the top opposition leader have agreed to meet, both sides said yesterday.  
 
Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's President, who won re-election last week after a deeply flawed vote count, invited Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader who said he was cheated out of victory, to talks on Friday and Mr. Odinga indicated he would go, if certain conditions were met.  
 
The meeting was announced as other progress came on the political front, with the chairman of the African Union expected to arrive in Kenya this week and Mr. Odinga agreeing to call off massive protest rallies scheduled for today that many feared would degenerate into bloodshed.  
 
Salim Lone, a spokesman for Mr. Odinga, said: "We will be happy to participate if this meeting is part of the process that will be put in place by John Kufuor," the head of the African Union and president of Ghana who is expected to arrive in Kenya today or tomorrow.  
 
He said the rallies were cancelled because "we wanted to create a conducive environment for negotiations. We wanted to show that we are serious."  
 
Yesterday, a Kenyan government committee raised the death toll from the election violence to 486, although the opposition said it was closer to 1,000.  
 
In Canada, David Kilgour, the former Liberal Secretary of State for Africa, and representatives of three pro-democracy groups, praised the Conservative government for its recent contribution of $1-million to the Kenyan Red Cross. But they said more must be done.  
 
Mr. Kilgour and the others held a press conference in Ottawa yesterday to urge the government to reject the Kenyan election results, to call for an interim national unity government and to press for a new presidential election that would be observed by the international community following the adoption of a new constitution. They also want Canada to support an intervention by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action group, a body that deals with serious violations of the Commonwealth's fundamental political values.  
 
The Kenyan "people think so highly of Canada and if we take the position that there has got to be another election soon, and the constitution has to be sorted out … then I think we will be taken very seriously on that," Mr.  Kilgour said.  
 
The Kenyan opposition has been pushing for an outside mediator to broker negotiations, because they say they do not trust the government. The government initially refused, saying the crisis was a Kenyan problem and that they could handle it internally.  
 
They relented this weekend, though Alfred Mutua, a government spokesman, said Mr. Kufuor, the head of the African Union, is not coming as a mediator.
"This is a fact-finding tour," he said.