Darfur deal by end-year possible but difficult-UN

GENEVA, Dec 2 (Reuters) – An agreement by the end of the year on a sustained ceasefire in Darfur is “possible but difficult”, the United Nations’ top envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, said on Friday.

The two main rebel groups and the Sudanese government, who started a seventh round of talks in Abuja, Nigeria, this week, remain distant on many issues, despite positive signs, he said.

“We are going in the right direction,” Pronk told a news conference in Geneva.

“A framework agreement … is possible but difficult because the positions of the parties in the talks are still far apart,” he added.

Among the reasons for his guarded optimism on a sustained truce and on power- and wealth-sharing arrangements was that after last January’s peace deal ending the war between the north and south, Sudan’s National Unity government included the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

The former rebel movement from the south is “more sympathetic to the demands of liberation movements in Darfur”, according to Pronk.

“There is a sense of understanding that peace is necessary for the sake of Sudan,” he added.

However, Pronk also warned that the humanitarian situation in the Darfur region was “extremely fragile”, with 2.5 million people displaced or needing aid because of a 2-1/2 year-old revolt.

The U.N. this week appealed to donor countries for $1.5 billion for Sudan, the largest single chunk of its $4.7 billion appeal worldwide for often-overlooked crises in 2006.