Kenya (AP) — Kenya's opposition leader demanded Saturday that the president resign, a sharp turnaround from his conciliatory tone during talks with the government earlier this week.

Raila Odinga, speaking to thousands of supporters at the funeral of an opposition lawmaker, resurrected demands he had dropped just days before as talks over the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election picked up momentum.

President Mwai Kibaki "must step down or there must be a re-election — in this I will not be compromised," Odinga said, addressing the wildly cheering crowd in East Africa's common tongue of Swahili.

A day earlier, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had struck an optimistic note after mediating negotiations between the two sides, and Odinga's own political party had said a power-sharing agreement was in the works.

But Odinga, speaking to his power base in western Kenya, returned to themes that have rallied supporters — and, many say, incited them to violence — since the election.

"You cannot steal my cow, and I catch you red-handed, and then expect me to share my the milk because the cow is mine," he said.

Thousands of people were gathered in an open field for the funeral of David Kimutai Too, whose killing set off a wave of ethnic clashes. Police say Too was killed in an act of passion, but the opposition insists he was assassinated.

More than 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 forced from their homes since Kibaki won a second term in a vote that Kenyan and foreign observers say was rigged. The fighting has pitted members of Kenya's rival ethnic groups against one another, gutted the economy and left the country's reputation as a budding democracy and a top tourist destination in tatters.

Saturday's funeral was the first mass public gathering since the government lifted a ban on rallies imposed after the election. Nearly all of Kenya's major opposition attended.

The opposition and international community had for weeks been urging the government to lift the ban, which had been repeatedly enforced by police using live bullets, tear gas and water cannons.

Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said he was lifting the ban Friday because "security has generally improved." He urged legislators and others to hold meetings "to promote peace and national reconciliation" and not to use rallies as "avenues to incite violence."

While none of the opposition figures at Saturday's funeral urged supporters to attack rivals, few spoke of reconciliation.

"The blood of David Too must run to the door of those who stole the election," said Anyang Nyongo, secretary-general of Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement.

"We are not going backward," said Najib Balala, another leading opposition politician. "We only want Raila (Odinga) to lead this nation."

Throughout the speeches, the crowd cheered and hollered, and repeatedly had to be pushed back from the raised platform were the speakers were seated.

Authorities say the traffic policeman who killed Too acted because he believed the lawmaker was involved with his girlfriend. But a Too family spokesman accused the police of a cover-up, saying the lawmaker was not involved with the woman. His death prompted enraged opposition supporters to attacked members of the policeman's ethnic group, the Kisii.

On Friday, Annan had expressed hopes that a settlement between Kibaki and Odinga would be reached early next week.

But even if that happens, it could take much longer to mend the ethnic rifts deepened by the crisis and repair the damage to Kenya' economy.

Only 8,000 tourists visited Kenya in January, far short of the 100,000 officials had estimated would, Ong'onga Achieng, the managing director of the Kenya Tourist Board, said Saturday at a meeting of hotel owners and travel agents in the port city of Mombasa.