Sudan’s govt determined to reach Darfur deal in Abuja talks

KHARTOUM, Oct 20 (AFP) — The Sudanese government is determined
to find a settlement to the Darfur conflict during Thursday’s talks
with rebel leaders in Nigeria, a member of the delegation said
Wednesday.

“We are determined and fully mandated to reach a negotiated
settlement to the Darfur problem,” State Foreign Minister Naguib
al-Khair Abdel Wahab told AFP.

“We are going to negotiate with an open mind,” he said, a day
after Khartoum chastised the Darfur rebels for suggesting Sunday’s
Libyan-sponsored African summit on the conflict was biased in the
government’s favour.

The mini-summit was aimed at trying to bringa halt to the
20-month conflict in Darfur, which the United Nations says has
killed about 70,000 people and left 1.4 million homeless.

The minister said the African Union-sponsored talks should lead
to the signing of a humanitarian protocol reached in the previous
round of talks, adding that Khartoum “was willing not only to sign
the protocol but also to implement it, even unilaterally.”

He said other topics on the agenda include the improvement of
the security conditions, reaching a political settlement and finding
remedies to the socio-economic problems in Darfur.

After accusing the Tripoli summit of pro-Khartoum bias, members
of the two main Darfur rebel groups which launched a rebellion
against the “marginalisation” of their region in February 2003
stayed on in Libya for discussions.

The summit tasked Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi with pursuing
parallel contacts with the leaders of the Justice and Equality
Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement.