Sudanese VP meets opposition figures during Cairo

CAIRO, June 9 (AFP) — Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha met with members of his country’s opposition here on the first leg of an Arab tour to brief leaders on efforts for peace with southern rebels, state news agency MENA reported.

Taha, heading a delegation that includes Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, met in the evening with members of the political committee of the National Democratic Alliance of northern opposition figures and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

During the talks, it was agreed to continue to “pursue dialogue with a view to examining the mechanisms for a comprehensive political solution to bring about peace,” MENA said.

Khartoum’s Al-Anbaa daily said earlier that Taha would meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday before traveling on to Tripoli for talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and to Saudi Arabia and a meeting with King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

Taha led the Sudanese delegation in peace talks in Kenya where he and SPLA leader John Garang signed a declaration recommitting themselves to a series of peace protocols.

The Nairobi declaration encapsulated deals struck over the course of two years of talks on issues such as power- and wealth-sharing and the establishment of a six-year interim period of autonomy for the south.

The war, in which some 1.5 million people have been killed, essentially pitted Islamic, Arabised governments in Khartoum against a south where traditional religions and Christianity are practised.

A ceasefire has been in force since October 2002.