ABUJA, April 30: Talks were under way on Sunday to try to salvage an African Union-brokered peace agreement after rebels from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region refused to sign it, hours before the deadline to complete negotiations to end the conflict.

Two anti-Khartoum rebel movements, the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), had earlier issued statements that they had taken a “joint position” not to sign the AU-brokered peace accord.

“This document is not acceptable to us, and we are not going to go by it or sign it,” JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussain said.

Hopes for the peace agreement appeared to have been dashed on Sunday afternoon as a meeting took place between the rebel groups and AU mediators, after the AU responded that the content of the deal would not change.

The rebels were expected officially to refuse of the deal at the meeting. The deadline set by the AU for completing peace negotiations was due to expire at midnight Sunday.

But a new session of talks began later in the day.

The Darfur conflict has killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.4 million in three years of fighting.

A special representative of the UN Secretary General for Sudan, Jan Pronk, and international mediators also attended Sunday afternoon’s meeting, which started at 1545 GMT.

After just over an hour participants agreed to meet for a full session later in the day, one of them told AFP. But AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said, “For us in the mediation team, our assignment is over at 12:00 midnight.”

“As mediators, the AU deadline and document will not change,” the AU spokesman said in reaction to the rebel statements.

“Our position is supported by the UN Security Council and if the agreement is not signed they know what to do,” he added.

“A couple of hours’ slip is no problem, of course, you can stop the clock and continue,” Pronk said.

“But the AU has set the deadline. I think the moment of truth is now. We have reached more or less the end of possibilities. (The rebels) have to sign tomorrow.

“The AU document is workable. Of course it doesn’t satisfy all the parties 100 per cent. It is not possible to satisfy all. We need to compromise,” he said.

“The international community has to make a plea to all the parties to sign, but you have to sign tomorrow.

“I did remind the parties this afternoon on the need to sign the agreement, but you cannot continue day after day repeating the old positions. It is not a serious representation of the people who you claim to fight for,” Pronk said.

“I have the hope that the parties will be reasonable to understand that this is important,” he said.

“I have to present a report to the UN Security Council. If the government of Sudan is willing to accept the pressure of the international community to sign, and the parties are not ready to do so, then they have to bear the brunt. And these are political consequences which the UN Security Council will decide.

Reservations raised by the rebels included claims that the AU document did not consider giving the vice president post to the Darfur region, or adequately resolve other power-sharing and wealth-distribution issues.

The Sudanese government delegation from Khartoum on Sunday reiterated its readiness to sign the peace accord. “The (Sudanese) government commits itself fully to apply the accord in good faith,” it said in a statement.—AFP