Sudanese peace talks in Nairobi see progress: FM

KHARTOUM, Dec 18, 2001 (KUNA) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Saturday that peace talks underway in Kenya between Vice-President Ali Othman Taha and Sudan’s southern rebel leader John Garang was seeing progress.

Sudanese VP Taha and SPLM leader Garang after the signature of thr Agreement on Security Arrangements, September 26, 2003.

In remarks to the press, he said the two delegations have started discussing wealth-distribution-related issues amid optimistic climates that a peace accord would be signed on the designated deadline.

But the official added that the Abuja talks on the Sudanese troubled region of Darfur, “have not started directly,” and that “contacts are held to resume negotiations.

” He hoped an accord signed yesterday between the Sudanese government and the National Movement for Reform and Development (MNRD) would go into effect within two months.