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Khartoum ready for talks with opposition-minister

CAIRO: Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said his government was ready to hold talks with opposition groups to end the country's 17-year civil war, Arab League sources said on Sunday.

"I informed the (league) Secretary-General of Sudan's position which supports the Libyan-Egyptian initiative and I assured (him) of the government's readiness to hold a national meeting with Sudan's opposition," Ismail told reporters following his talks with Esmat Abdel-Meguid.

Ismail said he hoped the opposition's current meetings in Asmara would agree on its delegation to attend the national gathering, adding that the Sudanese government did not mind any opposition factions moving in or out of the country.

Earlier on Sunday, a leading Libyan official said the Libyan-Egyptian peace initiative offered great hope for an end to Sudan's civil war, which in broad terms pits the Moslem, Arabised north against the mainly Christian and animist south.

"I found acceptance and full support for the initiative so I think there is a great chance to achieve national reconciliation in Sudan," Ali Tureiki, former foreign minister who is now Libya's pointman for Africa, told reporters at Cairo airport.

Tureiki, returning to Libya, said he had attended Saturday's talks with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Sudan to follow up on the Libyan-Egyptian peace initiative.

"I think many realise that this is the only initiative capable of getting Sudan out of its crisis, after it was accepted by all Sudanese factions -- opposition and government," said Tureiki, who met Sudanese opposition members in Cairo.

Libya and Egypt launched their peace bid last year, saying it aimed to complement an existing peace process sponsored by an East African regional grouping.

That grouping -- the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) -- brings the Khartoum government together with the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). It does not include Libya, Egypt and northern opposition groups.

Washington has said it prefers the six-year-old IGAD forum.

Ismail said negotiations, resumed in Nairobi this month, were still ongoing with the SPLA. "We do not expect to solve all issues during these negotiations," said Ismail, adding that he hoped the "main issues" would be decided on.

Ismail met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday and gave him a letter from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir which said Khartoum was ready to attend a peace conference proposed last year by Egypt and Libya.

More than 1.5 million people have died as a result of the Sudanese conflict.-Reuters