The leaders of the two rebel forces, Ahmed (L) and Tugod, rejected the talks

ABUJA, August 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Rebels groups form Sudan ’s war-torn Darfur region agreed Wednesday, August 25, to accept all agenda for peace talks with the Khartoum government, despite reservations to a clause asking for their garrisoning, negotiators said.

The decision to resume the talks came after reports that the third day of meetings broke up over objections of the demobilization clause on agenda.

The talks are due to resume on Thursday, August 26, at the International Conference Center in the Nigerian capital Abuja , delegates told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The two rebel groups eventually sat down with Sudanese government envoys and AU mediators two-and-a-half hours late, and the talks broke up again barely an hour later after a brief discussion of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur .

But rebel leaders said that they had agreed to shelve their objection to the inclusion on the African Union's proposed agenda for the talks of the "cantonment" of their armed forces until later in the proceedings.

"For the sake of the mediators and the facilitators we are keen to continue negotiation, for the sake of the security of our people," said Haroun Abdulhameed, foreign commissioner for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

"Forbidden"

But Abdel-Wahid Mohamed Ahmed El-Nur, leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) had told reporters on his way to the conference: "The article on talks on cantonment of our military is completely forbidden."

The rebels furiously insist that they will not disarm before reaching a comprehensive political settlement with Khartoum and before the notorious Janjaweed Arab militia – allegedly backed by the government - is completely disarmed.

However, Khartoum 's representative at the talks, Agriculture Minister Majzoub Al-Khalifa, said that the rebels must be demobilized simultaneously with the Janjaweed and that before talks on the Darfur region's future.

The Janjaweed have been accused of conducting attacks on Darfur .

Al-Khalifa conceded, however, that African Union peacekeepers may have to be deployed to oversee any rebel disarmament. Previously Khartoum had said that African troops would only be used to protect AU ceasefire monitors.

They may need more forces beside the protection of the monitors to protect the cantonment of the rebels, and we agree about that," Al-Khalifa said.

"When we start the disarmament of the Janjaweed -- and we have started that -- there must be a cantonment of the rebels under the protection of the AU force, if we need the AU force," he said.

But the minister insisted that the AU had accepted that the Sudanese government had sole responsibility for the protection of civilians in Darfur .

International human rights groups and some foreign governments have called for a neutral force to protect refugees and humanitarian aid, but Sudanese officials insist this is not on the agenda.

The UN estimates that between 30,000 and 50,000 people have died as a result of the conflict in Darfur . Some 1.2 million others have been displaced from their homes and a further 180,000 forced to flee into neighboring Chad , the vast majority of them members of black African minorities attacked by the pro-government Arab militia.

But Khartoum disputed the figure as exaggerated, saying less than 5,000 people were died in the conflict.

Autonomy

The rebel groups insist that they want the African Union to pressure Khartoum into granting Darfur and other regions greater autonomy and a better share of the national income. They are also refusing to disarm.

"How can we disarm our people? Without a proper security arrangement, these forces are our guarantee," Ahmed El-Nur declared before the talks began.

The SLM and the JEM had sought amendments to the agenda to reinforce their demands for greater political and economic power for regions which they claim are marginalized by Khartoum .

"The regions should elect their own government and hold it to account. The regions should have their own constitutions," JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam said. "We're not seeking to separate from our country, we want to be equal."

The rebels are also demanding a greater role for Darfuris in government, which they say is dominated by northern Sudanese of Arab extraction.

For their part, the Sudanese government accused the rebels of breaching an existing ceasefire agreement, including an attack during the weekend in which four Sudanese humanitarian workers and two journalists were allegedly kidnapped.

"Despite all that, we will continue to participate in these negotiations with the same spirit. Hopefully there will be an agreement between us and the rebel groups," the government party's spokesman Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim said.

There is no official date for the talks here to end - officials expect them to go on for several more days - but there is an implicit deadline in a looming United Nations security council ultimatum.

The UN has given Sudan until the end of the month to demonstrate that it is serious about restoring peace and security to Darfur , or face the prospect of sanctions. Meanwhile, international frustration is mounting.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged the Sudanese government Tuesday to "make a real effort" to ease the suffering caused by its bloody clampdown.

Straw said he would report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on his visit.

"I will also be talking to African leaders as well as other Security Council members so we are all in a position by the end of next week to...make judgments about whether there is sufficient progress. There is not enough progress -- but (the question) is whether there is sufficient progress," he said.