Darfur peace talks set for Oct. 27 in Libya

KHARTOUM, Sept 6 (Reuters) The Sudanese government and Darfur rebels will hold talks on October 27 in Libya to push for peace ahead of the expected deployment of 26,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, a UN-Sudanese government statement said today.

The statement said the United Nations ''expresses the hope that parties will cooperate fully'' with U.N. and African Union mediators. It said Khartoum had pledged to participate ''constructively'' in the talks.

The announcement came as U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon concluded a three-day tour of Sudan where he held talks with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and leaders of key Darfur rebel factions.

Ban told a news conference the Libya talks would be held under the mediation of UN Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim.

''I urge and expect all parties to respect their commitments to cease all hostilities immediately,'' Ban said.

In Washington, the United States welcomed the peace talks and said it was ready to support the effort.

''We're encouraged by the renewed efforts to obtain lasting peace in Sudan,'' said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. ''The UN with Ban Ki Moon's leadership and the African Union should be applauded for working to bring all sides to the negotiating table.'' International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and more than 2 million have been driven from their homes in Darfur since the ethnic and political conflict flared in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.

The choice of Libya as a venue came as a surprise as Tanzania had previously been seen as the leading candidate to host the talks.

GADDAFI CAN DELIVER UN officials said the idea to hold the talks in Libya came up in talks between Ban and Bashir earlier this week, but they believed it had originally come from the African Union.

''The idea is that maybe Gaddafi can deliver more movements,'' a senior UN official said, asking not to be named, referring to Darfur's splintered rebel movements.

One key Darfur rebel who is the founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, has already said he will not participate in fresh talks until the promised UN-AU peacekeeping force is in place. Some UN officials said they believed Nur might still attend.

Ban said: ''I would strongly urge him to participate.'' ''This is going to be a critically important negotiating forum for peace and security in Sudan,'' Ban added.

He paid tribute to the Libyan government for the ''very constructive role'' it played in the past in bringing Darfur rebel groups together.

Ban said that he and AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare ''are of the same view that Tripoli could work as a good place''.

A 2006 peace deal between Khartoum and one rebel faction failed to quell the violence in the western region. In July, the UN Security Council approved a plan for 26,000 UN and African Union peacekeepers to take over from a smaller and ineffective AU force currently operating in Darfur.

Ban has said that the UN-AU force cannot be effective unless ''there is a peace to keep''.

Yesterday, Ban visited a refugee camp near the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, where he was mobbed by thousands of cheering people who see the United Nations as a way out of their plight. He visited autonomous south Sudan on Tuesday.

Later in the week he will travel on to Chad and Libya.

REUTERS PDT KN2158