Iraqi foreign minister visits Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Sep 11, 2004 (UPI) — Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zibari met Saturday with Sudanese President Omar Bashir and concerning Sudanese fighters now in Iraq.

Zibari told a news conference in Khartoum his talks with officials focused on improving bilateral relations and on “a number of Sudanese fighting in Iraq alongside the extremists.”

He said his government did not know whether the Sudanese fighting in his country had entered Iraq recently or were there since the days of the regime of Saddam Hussein, which was toppled by U.S. forces in April 2003.

Zibari, however, insisted Baghdad did not lay responsibility for the fighters on the Sudanese government.

He said he also asked the Sudanese government to quickly find a solution to the troubled Darfur region in western Sudan “to avoid any problems” and urged the Arab League to present “practical proposals for resolving” the crisis in the region.

A U.N. Security Council resolution threatens to impose sanctions on Sudan if Khartoum does not restore peace to Darfur, where 19 months of civil strife has left more than one million homeless and more than 50,000 killed.