Garang, right, is set to replace Taha as Vice President

KHARTOUM, December 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Senior officials of Sudan’s rebel group Friday, December 5, arrived in Sudan, for the first time in 20 years, as Sudanese President Omar Bashir declared an end to the long-standing civil war in the south.

Thousands of people, mainly southerners living in Khartoum, gathered near the airport to welcome the delegation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) coming from Libya, Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“Welcome new Sudan,” they cheered in English.

Among the SPLA members arriving was Yasser Arman, a spokesman for SPLA leader John Garang.

The unprecedented visit by SPLA officials to Khartoum as guests of the government is a mark of just how far the two sides have come, the BBC online news service said.

Before meeting the delegation, Sudanese President Omar Bashir said “this puts an end to the war prevailing in southern areas for 20 years”.

The fighting between rebels from the south and the Khartoum government have left some two million people dead.

Kenya Talks

In the meantime, first Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Garang are meeting at Lake Naivasha in Kenya to discuss the final stages of a peace agreement.

The outstanding issues on agenda are finding formulas to share political power, divide up the oil wealth and determine the status of the capital Khartoum, as well as that of three disputed regions.

The fresh round of talks with the southern rebels and the rebel visit to Khartoum Friday highlight the dramatic progress both sides have made toward ending the war in the two years since the United States threw its weight behind the negotiations.

The United States expects a final agreement to end the war to be signed by the end of the year.

National elections are expected to follow the end of the war, though no date or even year has been set for them.

The SPLM said it hopes the talks in Khartoum, which have been well publicized here, will not only bolster the peace process but lead to the group's transformation into a full nationwide party.

Under the current agreement, Garang is to become vice President - a position held by Taha.

But the authorities and the rebels have yet to agree on how to share power and oil wealth.

They also have to decide whether Islamic law will apply to Khartoum, and determine the status of three disputed regions - Abyei, Blue Nile state and the Nuba Mountains.

The SPLA wants the states to be part of the autonomous south but the government disagrees.

The government and the SPLA have agreed to set up a 39,000 strong army comprising of fighters from both sides.

Other Deal Clinched

In another related development, Sudan's government signed a peace deal Thursday with the northern rebel Democratic Unionist party.

Taha signed the peace accord in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah with northern opposition leader Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, according to Sudan's ambassador in the Saudi capital.

Mirghani, who lives in exile in Cairo and Asmara, had recently warned that his party's exclusion from the government's peace talks with the SPLM in Kenya augured badly for peace prospects.

SPLA leader John Garang said on Wednesday that he wants to share power not only with President Bashir but with other political leaders once the ongoing peace process brings an end to the 20-year civil war.

He had met in Cairo in May with Mirghani and Sadeq al-Mahdi, head of the Umma Party, the other main northern opposition party.

The northern opposition groups joined the SPLA in 1995 in Eritrea in taking up arms against Bashir, but their unity lasted only a few months.