Libya to stage talks on Darfur: official source

April 15, 2007 (TRIPOLI) — Libya will host an international conference on April 28 aimed at ending the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, an official source said on Sunday.

The meeting will include representatives of Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, the United States, Britain, the African Union (AU) and the European Union, the source said.

He did not specify the level of participation.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has hosted a string of mini-summits and other gatherings in the past two years on the war in Darfur, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes since 2003.

Gaddafi, who advocates African solutions in resolving African conflicts and avoiding reliance on Western diplomacy, regards neighbouring Sudan and Chad as his diplomatic backyard.

The United States has said it wants Libya to play a positive role in resolving the Darfur crisis and in encouraging Sudan to agree to a joint AU/United Nations force in Darfur.

A Libyan mediator said in Khartoum last week Libyan and Eritrean military and security observers have been deployed at the border between Sudan and Chad, scene of recent clashes.

The bloodshed in Darfur, an area the size of France, began after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms accusing Khartoum of neglecting the arid region. The violence has now spilled over to Chad and Central African Republic.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is due to visit Tripoli in the coming week — the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat to do so in decades — as part of an African mission from April 11-19 to discuss Darfur.

(Reuters)