Up to 600,000 people have been displaced by election-related violence in Kenya, the United Nations humanitarian chief said Monday as negotiations between the government and the opposition resumed.  

A government negotiator said President Mwai Kibaki's party was considering sharing power with the opposition.

Displaced Kenyan families with their belongings gather at a transit camp in Kisumu, western Kenya, Monday. UN humanitarian head John Holmes says up to 600,000 people have been displaced in the country's post-election violence.
(Riccardo Gangale/Associated Press)

"The talks from today on will be a hardball," said negotiator Mutula Kilonzo. "We are talking about the modalities of a political settlement, which can come in different forms. One of them is sharing governing; another one is to reform the constitution to create a strong opposition and a capable government."

The international community has pressed for a power-sharing deal in hopes that it will bring an end to the violence sparked by the highly contested Dec. 27 election. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has said the election was fixed and demanded the president's resignation and new elections.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the post-election violence. Another 600,000 have been displaced, estimates John Holmes, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

"There are something like 300,000 people displaced in camps … [and] beyond those 300,000 there are probably just as many who are not in camps who have gone back to their homelands … or are sheltering with friends and neighbours somewhere else," said Holmes Monday, following a weekend visit to the east African country.

He said many of those classified as living in camps were staying "in many cases, simply in police stations or prisons or churches or other government buildings taken over temporarily as places of shelter by people forced from their homes."

Displaced people were living in 300 camps nationwide, he added, too many for aid groups and the government to upkeep.

With files from the Associated Press