African leaders meet for Darfur peace summit

TRIPOLI, Nov 21 (Reuters) The leaders of Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Libya and Eritrea gathered in Libya today to try to advance peace efforts in Darfur and repair frayed ties between Sudan and Chad, a Libyan official said.

Central African Republic President Francois Bozize would join the mini-summit on his arrival in Tripoli later in the day, Ali Treki, Secretary for African Union (AU) Affairs at the Libyan Foreign Ministry, told reporters.

The summit, due to start later today, would explore ways of securing the agreement of the National Redemption Front (NRF) to a limited peace accord reached in May between Khartoum and another rebel group, Treki said.

The NRF is an alliance of Darfur rebel groups that rejected as inadequate the May peace accord. It says it is ready to negotiate with Khartoum but wants a new agreement.

Sudan's Darfur conflict is spilling into a dangerous mixture of refugees, rebels, militia and bandit raiders over Sudan's western borders into Chad and Central African Republic.

The United Nations and the African Union have been pressing Sudan's government to accept a UN-led peacekeeping force in the Darfur region to halt three years of violence there that has already killed tens of thousands.

''Discussions are under way between the Sudanese government and the National Redemption Front to reach an agreement to support peace in Darfur,'' Treki said.

''The gathering is (also) aimed at the return of normal relations between Sudan and Chad.'' Despite a series of public peace accords between N'Djamena and Khartoum, Chad accuses Sudan of sending Janjaweed militia across the frontier and of arming and directing rebels seeking to overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby.

Sudan's government denies this. Sudan and Chad have long accused each other of backing rebel groups operating on either side of the border.

AFRICAN PEACEKEEPERS ONLY Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are wary of UN intervention in Darfur, where the conflict has driven more than two million people from their homes.

Egypt's state Middle East News Agency reported Mubarak's spokesman Suleiman Awad as saying Mubarak had held one-to-one talks with Gaddafi on his arrival.

''The talks tackled the main issue of the African mini-summit, which is how to widen the scope of the Abuja peace agreement to include all factions ... to achieve peace and prevent any international intervention,'' Awad said, referring to the Nigerian capital when the May Darfur accord was signed.

Treki said the summit would call for all peacekeepers in Darfur to be African, an echo of Bashir's long-standing rejection of a proposed UN-led peacekeeping force in Darfur.

Egypt has tried to mediate a compromise between US and UN demands for a UN force and Sudan's insistence that an African force can do the job if it receives more international money and logistical support.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing Sudan's government of marginalising the remote west. Khartoum mobilised militias to quell the revolt. Those militias stand accused of atrocities against civilians being investigated by the International Criminal Court.

Washington calls the rape, murder and pillage in Darfur genocide, a charge Khartoum rejects.

REUTERS SPKP2149