PRETORIA -- Burundian President Pierre Buyoya left South Africa Sunday after talks with former president Nelson Mandela to attend a new round of peace talks on the conflict in his nation, diplomatic sources said.

"He (Buyoya) has left for the summit in Dar es Salaam," the source at the Burundian Embassy told AFP referring to the talks starting on Monday in the Tanzanian economic capital.

Buyoya met Mandela behind closed doors at his Johannesburg home Saturday. On Friday, he met Deputy South African President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma succeeded Mandela as the chief mediator in the peace negotiations for the Central African country.

Buyoya, Zuma and South African President Thabo Mbeki will attend the Burundi summit with other leaders of nations in the Great Lakes region.

"The president will be flying to Dar es Salaam this afternoon," Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo said.

Zuma is expected to present a report to the summit on cease-fire negotiations between the transitional government of Burundi and the rebel groups from the Hutu ethnic majority.

Since 1993, more than 250,000 people have been killed in the civil war, which pits several armed groups drawn from the Hutu majority against an army dominated by the Tutsi minority.