Sudanese foreign minister says final peace accord could be reached within days

ABU DHABI, UAE, Jan 10, 2004 (AP) — A final agreement to end the Sudanese civil war could be reached within days, the Sudanese foreign minister said Saturday.

Mustafa Osman Ismail was talking to reporters after meeting United Arab Emirates officials during a brief visit to this state.

Sudanese government negotiators and those of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army signed an accord in Kenya on Jan. 7 on sharing the nation’s wealth, particularly the oil revenues. The deal raised hopes that a comprehensive agreement could be reached soon.

“We are talking about days, not weeks or months,” Ismail said.

Ismail said the signing ceremony for a comprehensive accord could take place in Washington, “as a sign of appreciation for the role the United States has played in this effort.”

U.S. President George W. Bush has invited both sides to the White House after they reach a settlement to end the 20-year war.

After the breakthrough earlier this month, rebel leader John Garang said he hoped a final agreement would be reached by the end of January.

However, the chief Kenyan mediator, Lazaro Sumbeiywo, has warned that the remaining issues could be difficult to resolve, saying the closer a final agreement gets, “the more complicated it becomes because there are fewer options.”

The outstanding issues are the composition of a transitional administration, the fate of three disputed areas in central Sudan, and whether the Sudanese capital should be governed under Islamic or secular law.

Ismail was adamant Saturday that the peace process would not falter.

“The Sudanese have said goodbye to war and moved on to peace,” he said. “There will be no return to war.”

The war began in 1983 when rebels from the south, whose people are ethnically African and of animist and Christian faiths, took up arms against rule by the predominantly Arab and Muslim northerners. The conflict is also a struggle over land and resources.