Ugandan rebels 'postpone' truce

Some 1.6m people have fled their homes because of the fighting

Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in northern Uganda have delayed signing a cease-fire to end the bloody 18-year conflict, the government says.

The government had expected a permanent truce to be signed on Friday after talks near the border with Sudan appeared to make good progress.

Both sides had appeared optimistic about closing a peace deal.

But government negotiator Betty Bigombe announced that the rebels were still involved in internal consultations.

She told journalists that the LRA team had received the draft memorandum for the cease-fire and understood what it entailed.

"We shall call you and inform you about the new date and venue [for the signing]," she added.

Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda told the BBC on Wednesday that, following the first direct talks with the LRA, a formal peace accord would be signed within two days.

Uganda's invisible war

"By the end of the meeting we were not only shaking hands but actually embracing because we had agreed on ending war," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

The head of the rebel party at the talks, Brig Sam Kolo, was cautiously optimistic about peace:

"If the government continues showing us what it has just shown us, then the suffering will soon end."

A signed accord would build on a limited cease-fire already in place in the region.

Some 1.6 million people have been driven into refugee camps in what aid workers call one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. Thousands of children were also abducted by the LRA to become fighters or sex slaves.

LRA leader Joseph Kony did not attend the talks.