US presses Sudanese adversaries to reach peace accord

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (AFP) — The United States urged the Sudanese government and the country’s chief rebel group to live up to their commitment to reach a peace accord by year’s end.

Peace talks taking place in neighboring Kenya “are in a crucial phase,” with the principals “grabbling over the wealth-sharing issues,” said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

The Khartoum government and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) “made a commitment to reach an agreement before the end of the year, and we are urging them to meet their commitment,” he said.

The talks in Kenya between Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA chief John Garang reached a stalemate Friday over the sharing of oil revenues, according to a mediation official who was present.

Sudan pumps some 300,000 barrels of oil a day, representing 43 percent of the government’s revenue, according to the Energy and Mines Ministry.

In recent months the government and the rebel group have expressed optimism that an accord could be struck by the end of the year, which would mean an end to the country’s 20-year civil war.

Previous rounds of negotiations have clinched deals on transitional security arrangements and a six-year period of autonomy for the south, to be followed by a referendum on whether the south should secede or remain part of Sudan.

Some 1.5 million people have been killed in Sudan since civil war flared up again in 1983, when rebels in the mainly black African south rose up against Khartoum’s hardline Islamic Arab government.