By Arthur Asiimwe

KIGALI, March 4 (Reuters) - Rwanda and its U.N backed genocide tribunal signed an agreement on Tuesday to have convicts sentenced by the Tanzania-based court transferred to serve their time in Rwanda.

In 1997, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) began trials of the architects of the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and Hutu moderates in the central African country.

A Security Council resolution setting up the ICTR identifies Rwanda as the primary location where sentences should be served, but none of the 27 people convicted by the tribunal has been transferred to Kigali.

"This agreement appears as the last brick completing the legal framework which qualifies Rwanda as one of the countries that may be deemed suitable for the enforcement of sentences handed down by ICTR," Adama Dieng, the ICTR registrar, told reporters.

However the final decision on which convicts will be transferred to Rwanda lies in the hands of the judges of the ICTR, Dieng said.

Rwanda has completed a detention centre for the convicts, which the tribunal has approved as meeting international standards.

Detainees criticised the move, saying they feared unfair treatment by the Kigali authorities while serving their sentences in Rwanda.

"In principle, everybody detained in Arusha (Tanzania) must serve their sentence here -- now that we have this agreement in place we ready to receive them here," Rwandan foreign minister Charles Murigande said.

Six other countries -- France, Swaziland, Sweden, Benin, Mali and Italy -- have signed similar agreements with the ICTR.

A Belgian journalist, Georges Ruggiu, who was jailed for inciting genocide in Rwanda, was handed over on Thursday to police from Italy, where he will serve the rest of his 12-year sentence.

ICTR is expected to wind up its first instance trials by December this year while appeal hearings will end by 2010.

Rwanda is pushing to have all outstanding cases conducted on its soil.

Since its inception, the tribunal has completed 35 cases and trials of 27 more suspects are in progress. Seven more await trial in captivity in Arusha.

The tribunal has also indicted 16 fugitives, including Felicien Kabuga, accused of financing the 1994 genocide. (Editing by Giles Elgood)

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