U N envoy to meet Ugandan rebel chief

JUBA, Sudan, Nov 12 (Reuters) UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland will meet the reclusive commander of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army in southern Sudan today, UN officials said.

Egeland, on a visit to Sudan, hopes his meeting with rebel leader Joseph Kony will give fresh impetus to talks on bringing an end to a 20-year-old insurgency.

This month the Ugandan government and the rebels signed an extension of a truce. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the insurgency and nearly 2 million have been displaced in northern Uganda.

The meeting would take place in the southern Sudanese town of Nbanga, which lies near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, the officials said.

They said Egeland would travel to Nbanga by helicopter with Riek Machar, vice president of southern Sudan, and a delegation from the Ugandan government.

Egeland has been seeking humanitarian gestures from Kony but the officials could not say if he had obtained any.

Reuters SP RN1253