Darfur rebel talks unlikely to begin on time

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Aug 3 (Reuters) Rebel factions from Sudan's Darfur region looked unlikely to begin full-scale talks as scheduled today to try and reconcile differences because most were expected to arrive late in the day, officials said.

The talks, brokered by the African Union and United Nations, have taken on a new importance since the UN Security Council decided on Tuesday to approve the deployment of 26,000 peacekeeping troops and police to stem the bloodshed in Darfur.

At the talks in the Tanzanian resort town of Arusha, the rebels are due to try and work out a common platform -- widely seen as a vital step towards a lasting solution to the four-year-old conflict.

UN officials said only one or two rebel representatives had arrived in Arusha yesterday and that most were not expected to arrive until today afternoon.

That meant no real talks would get under way until tomorrow at the earliest, said the officials.

The meeting has been set up to hammer out a single negotiating position for roughly a dozen rebel groups before they enter talks with the Khartoum government to resolve the conflict in the vast western Sudanese region.

It should also produce a date and venue for the talks.

CONFLICT The conflict erupted in early 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Khartoum government, which they accused of neglecting their area.

The government responded by arming mostly Arab militias known as Janjaweed to attack the rebels.

Independent experts say 200,000 people have been killed in the fighting and that 2.5 million have been displaced. Sudan says only 9,000 have been killed.

Sudan has given way on what analysts say could be the key to unifying rebel combat commanders with their political counterparts.

Khartoum said on Wednesday it would consider releasing a rebel humanitarian aid coordinator, Suleiman Jamous, after the talks start.

The elderly rebel from the Sudan Liberation Army is widely credited with helping to prevent violence against aid workers.

Jamous has said he can bring the combat commanders to the bargaining table if he can attend the talks, and analysts say he is the best hope of merging the political and military sides -- without which there is little chance of success.

A large rebel faction said on Thursday it would not attend the talks if Jamous was not released first.

Already, Sudan Liberation Movement leader Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur has refused to attend the talks.

Though he has little military power, Nur's opinion carries significant weight among Darfuris and analysts say his blessing of any peace initiative is crucial to its sucess.

REUTERS AK BST0732