Powell urges Sudan to speed up peace talks

KHARTOUM, Sep 18, 2003 (dpa) — U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Thursday on Sudanese president Omer Hassan El Beshir to speed up peace talks in the war torn country, the national news agency SUNA reported.

Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Mustafa Osman Ismael, in a statement to SUNA, said Powell told Beshir in a telephone conversation to increase efforts at peace so a final deal could be reached as soon as possible to end decades of civil war between South and North Sudan.

Talks between Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang in the Kenyan Rift Valley town of Naivasha are in their fifteenth day.

Negotiations between Taha and Garang were reported by observers to have reached a critical point as the two sides start to negotiate the most contentious issue of the security arrangements in the six year interim period stipulated by a framework agreement signed last year.

Mustafa told SUNA that Taha had reported a breakthrough on the issues hindering the signing of a peace agreement but he did not identify where the advances had been made.

Sudanese press on Sunday reported that the Sudanese government and southern rebels began face-to-face talks to explore the possibility of establishing a joint force to operate during the six year transition period but no further details were available.