Sudanese vice president leaves Kenyan peace talks

KHARTOUM, Oct 15 (Reuters) – Sudanese First Vice President is to leave talks to end Africa’s longest civil war in southern Sudan earlier than hoped but Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Thursday he was optimistic a deal could be reached.

One senior Arab diplomat told Reuters on Thursday there had been no direct talks yet between the head of the government delegation First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and the head of the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), John Garang, since the talks opened in Kenya a week ago.

“There have been no talks yet, just the opening ceremony,” he told Reuters after attending the talks in Kenya. Observers had hoped Taha would stay longer to push forward the talks, which have previously dragged at the technical committee level.

Moussa, in a joint press conference with Sudan’s foreign minister in Khartoum, declined to say whether official talks had taken place between the two leaders.

“When I entered the VIP room this morning I found both the first vice president and Dr. Garang sitting together talking about the issues pertaining to their negotiations in which they are both involved,” he replied instead. Moussa had just arrived in Khartoum from Nairobi.

He said Taha would return to Khartoum on Thursday evening. “But he was satisfied and I hope there will be progress and real progress in those negotiations,” Moussa said.

The southern civil war broadly pits the Islamic Khartoum government against the mainly Christian, animist south, complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology. It has claimed about two million lives and displaced four million people.

The Kenyan peace talks had been largely overshadowed by fighting in Sudan’s western Darfur region.