Sudan summit fails to agree truce

Government and southern rebels discussed a ceasefire

A summit in Kenya aimed at ending the long-running civil war in Sudan has closed without a ceasefire agreement, but the two sides have agreed to continue talking.

The parties have committed themselves to work towards concluding a ceasefire agreement, but in the circumstances it appears it was not possible to agree today [on a ceasefire]

Kenya's Foreign Minister Bonaya Godana

The one-day meeting was the first in four years to have been attended by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and the leader of the southern Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), John Garang.

That fact in itself had raised some expectations that progress might be made, a BBC correspondent says.

Peace talks in Kenya hosted by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have gone on since 1994 without any significant progress.

The Sudanese civil war has lasted 18 years and cost the lives of millions of ordinary people through conflict, disease and starvation.

Bickering

Correspondents say the quest for peace in Sudan has been held up by a dispute over whether a ceasefire should come before or after a peace agreement.

They say the discovery of oil in territories claimed by the rebels has further complicated the search for peace.

Mr Bashir and Mr Garang agreed to appoint permanent negotiating teams to continue the peace talks in Nairobi and discuss the content of a ceasefire agreement, as well as attend another summit in two months, but not to stop fighting.

They talked to mediators in separate rooms, but did not meet face to face.

Even as the summit was held, fighting continued in southern Sudan, with the SPLA announcing after the summit that it had taken the strategic government-held town of Raga in the south-west of the country.

International support

As the summit opened, Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi had appealed to both sides to have "the courage to compromise" to end one of Africa's longest wars.

Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi was mediating the talks

The government in Khartoum was prepared to accept an unconditional ceasefire, but the SPLA said it would only sign up to a comprehensive agreement to end the war.

Asked when he thought the war would end, Mr Garang said: "I am a freedom fighter, not a fortune teller."

The SPLA is the largest of a number of Sudanese armed groups fighting for greater autonomy for the south.

The leaders of Ethiopia, Uganda and Djibouti were also involved in the talks.

During a visit to Kenya in May, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States was "going to work hard to bring a ceasefire into effect".

Mr Powell added the US would appoint a special envoy to try to press the parties in Sudan to "re-energise" the peace process.