Sudan government and rebels to sign permanent truce

NAIROBI - Sudan's government and southern rebels will agree the final chapters of a peace deal on Friday, paving the way for a comprehensive agreement ending Africa's longest-running civil war in January, delegates said.

The government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said middle-ranking officials would sign the final two of eight peace protocols that together constitute an overall accord ending 21 years of war in the oil-producing south.

In January both principal negotiators, Sudan First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and SPLM leader John Garang, will hold a ceremony where for the first time they will sign the eight deals agreed by junior colleagues in two years of talks.

"That ceremony will bring the peace accord into effect," SPLM negotiator Pagan Amum told Reuters, adding he expected the ceremony involving foreign leaders to take place on January 7.

Although many deadlines have come and gone in two years of talks, and the parties' perennial mistrust has been sharpened by recent tensions over the Darfur conflict, both sides are under strong United States pressure to end the southern war by the end of 2004.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to Garang and Taha on Wednesday, expressing hope they could resolve the outstanding issues, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We're pleased with the efforts the parties have been making," he told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

The US has a special interest in Sudan, which it lists as a "state sponsor of terrorism", because of Khartoum's record of hosting militant Islamists including Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s.

Sudanese Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin told Reuters in Khartoum: "I expect there will be a signing of an initial agreement tomorrow. After that there will be a final signing in a few days in the presence of foreign leaders."

The agreement would not cover the separate war raging in western Darfur region but diplomats believe a north-south deal could be a blueprint for peace there.

"The tragedy of Darfur is not forgotten in the celebration or the pleasure that we might express about seeing a north-south agreement concluded," Boucher added.

The combatants pledged in November to sign a final peace by the end of the year to end a war in the oil-exporting south that has killed an estimated two million people, mainly through famine and disease, and uprooted four million.

Khartoum has already signed six preliminary protocols with the southern rebels that would form a coalition government, decentralise power, share oil revenues and integrate the military. The south can vote for secession in six years.

Taha and Garang were finalising details in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, where the accord will be signed at 1200 GMT.

The peace process has been built on a series of protocols on a variety of contentious issues such as wealth-sharing. The final two protocols are on the practicalities of implementing all these separate deals, and on a permanent ceasefire.

During an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council in Nairobi last month, the two men pledged to sign a final pact by December 31, which is also the date the current ceasefire ends.

"We would expect that once the agreement is signed, it will lead to a national conference, a national dialogue, and it will also add momentum to the search for a solution in Darfur," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a news conference.

Observers to the negotiations have said that, barring major progress, any agreements announced by Friday's deadline would be piecemeal and more an exercise in face-saving for the parties.

- REUTERS