Five new stories (updated both to reflect a newer version of the Reuters story and to add the ones from AFX, DPA, and the BBC):
(Many of the British "quality" newspapers [the "Scotsman", the "Guardian", the "Independent", and the "Telegraph"] are running original stories on the talks in their Monday editions; however, because of this new development, they're now essentially outdated.)
By Reuters' Estelle Shirbon (which does not overwrite the AlertNet source page of the Reuters story in the earlier batch)...
(Earlier versions of this new story are also still available on AlertNet.)
Mediators from the African Union (AU) agreed in the early hours of Monday to give the warring parties from Sudan's Darfur region an extra 48 hours to strike a peace deal after a midnight deadline expired.
International pressure on the government of Sudan and three Darfur rebel factions intensified in the build-up to the deadline, but only the government said it would sign an 85-page settlement drafted by the AU. The rebels insisted they wanted more of their demands to be met.
"We shall stop the clock for the next 48 hours so that the opportunity is used ... by the parties to engage amongst themselves," said Salim Ahmed Salim, chief AU mediator, during a late-night plenary session at the peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.
U.S. officials at the talks had earlier requested the extension, arguing that it would allow for agreement on two critical security issues -- the disarmament of Janjaweed militias and the integration of rebels into the Sudanese army.
The AU draft requires the government to disarm the Janjaweed, who have been used by Khartoum to fight the rebels and who are accused of atrocities against civilians.
This provision is particularly problematic for the government because there are many tribal militias in Darfur that are considered legitimate by their communities, and Khartoum does not want to find itself having to disarm these. Also, there is some contention on how to verify Janjaweed disarmament.
The rebels want some of their fighters to be integrated into the Sudanese armed forces and they have complained that the AU draft does not meet this demand to their satisfaction.
Diplomats have said that an exchange of concessions on the two issues represented the best hope of breaking the wider deadlock in the peace talks. U.S. diplomat Cameron Hume listed a series of suggested compromise solutions on both issues.
FRUSTRATION
The AU draft is the result of tough negotiations on security, wealth-sharing and power-sharing that have dragged on for two years while the conflict in Darfur has escalated.
The rebels have a host of other objections to the proposed settlement on issues ranging from political representation for the region to compensation for the victims of the conflict.
"We have to negotiate to reach consensus point on these issues," said Minni Arcua Minnawi, leader of one of the factions of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). He said he was hopeful the extra 48 hours would be enough to clinch agreement.
But decision-making is arduous for the rebels, who are split into two groups and three factions with a history of infighting.
"To be frank, it has often been frustrating for all of us to deal with you," Salim told the rebels during the plenary.
"The Abuja process has provided you with recognition and a platform ... Should you decide to walk away from Abuja without an agreement, you should not count on the same recognition and the same opportunities for political primacy," he said.
The rebels took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed Darfur, an arid region the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.
Khartoum used militias, known locally as Janjaweed and drawn from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people while a campaign of arson, looting and rape has driven more than 2 million from their homes into refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
All sides have continued fighting despite a 2004 ceasefire, according to the AU which has 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur. Aid groups say violence prevents them from delivering food and medicine to tens of thousands of refugees.
In Washington, several thousand Americans, led by religious leaders, entertainers and politicians, marched to urge the United States to halt "genocide" in Darfur.
From the AP...
African Union mediators brokering peace talks among warring parties in Sudan's Darfur region said Sunday they were extending by 48 hours a deadline for the peace parley's end.
Salim Ahmed Salim said the talks would continue until midnight on Tuesday, pushing back a scheduled Sunday end to talks that have gone on for two years but so far failed to halt violence behind the deaths of 180,000 people.
Salim, a lead mediator for the 53-nation AU, said the bloc had bowed to requests from the United States and others to continue work on a proposed deal to end fighting.
"The African Union has extended the deadline of the peace talks by 48 hours as requested by the United States and other international partners to allow extensive consultations to go ahead," he told reporters at the talks' site in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
The African Union, which is mediating the talks to end the conflict behind one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, had set midnight Sunday as the peace conference's end, pressing Darfur's warring parties to sign a peace deal circulated in recent days.
The Sudanese government indicated approval for the draft deal, but rebels said the pact failed to meet their demands for autonomy in the vast western Darfur region or vice-presidential representation in the Khartoum government.
"We are not going to sign it as it is," said Hahmed Hussein, a spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement, who said in a statement he spoke for both Darfur rebel groups. The other main insurgent group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, earlier asked for more time to consider the document.
For Sudan's war-wracked Darfur region, the only other option to continuing talks is to entirely abandon long-running negotiations meant to end a conflict that has already taken 180,000 lives and left 3 million homeless.
Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003 when some ethnic groups took up arms, accusing the east African nation's Arab-dominated central government of neglect.
The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militia known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages. Sudan denies backing the Janjaweed, whom the United States accuses of genocide.
Nearly two years of peace talks have failed to quell the violence and all sides have roundly ignored a cease-fire agreement monitored by 7,000 African Union soldiers on the ground in Darfur, the size of France.
Sudan has indicated it might accept a U.N. force in Darfur if a peace treaty is signed. A beefed-up UN force with a strong mandate is seen as one option to impose peace in Darfur -- and calm an African region where violence is on the upswing.
Darfur's violence has spilled into neighboring Chad, where many Darfur refugees are taking shelter, and threatens to escalate. Osama bin Laden last week urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight the proposed U.N. presence.
As talks have continued, the plight of 3 million Darfur refugees has worsened. The U.N. World Food Program said on Friday that it was cutting rations in half for those survivors, citing a lack of funds. The U.N. says the Darfur crisis is among the world's worst humanitarian crises and with the dry season approaching and harvest stores dwindling, Darfurians face even harder times ahead.
International pressure has mounted on Darfur's warring parties in recent days as talks advanced.
In Washington, actors, athletes, politicians and religious leaders rallied Sunday to call attention to the Darfur conflict and urge greater U.S. involvement. More than a dozen rallies were planned in U.S. cities over the weekend.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on China and Russia to join the United States in pushing Sudan to accept U.N. forces.
From AFX...
(An earlier version is also still available.)
A deadline for a peace agreement in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region was extended by 48 hours early on Monday, the African Union's negotiator Salim Ahmed Salim said.
'We have to stop the clock for the next 48 hours to allow the parties to hold more talks. The peace accord is on my desk and either of the parties can come and sign it,' Salim told a last-ditch meeting of negotiators from the rebels and the Sudanese government.
He was speaking at a meeting, attended by rebels from Sudan's western war-torn Darfur region and the Sudanese government with mediators from the African Union (AU) and international bodies, which started at 11:40 pm (2240 GMT).
The talks are aimed at ending a conflict in Darfur that has killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.4 million others in three years of fighting.
Earlier on Sunday, the AU-brokered peace deal had looked in peril as two rebel groups announced their refusal to sign it and the AU insisted the content of the agreement would not be changed.
The rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) had issued statements of a 'joint position' not to sign the peace accord.
Reservations raised by the rebels include claims that the AU document did not consider giving the country's vice presidency to the Darfur region, nor did it 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 government commits itself fully to apply the accord in good faith,' it said in a statement.
From DPA...
Having failed to strike a deal at the expiration of Sunday's African Union deadline for parties to the conflict in Darfur to reach an agreement, the AU extended the deadline by 48 hours.
The extension was announced Monday in Abuja by Salim Ahmed Salim, AU special envoy to the Abuja peace talks on Darfur, who enjoined the government of Sudan and the two rebel groups in the conflict to sign without delay a peace deal proposed by the AU mediation team.
The two rebel groups are the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement and Army.
'The agreement has the support of the AU member-states, the UN, the EU, the League of Arab States, the United States and Canada because it paves the way for the restoration of normality in Darfur, laying the foundation for democracy and development,' Salim said.
'The consequences of not signing the agreement will be a drastic and negative impact on the people of Darfur, whose suffering and death will continue for no just reason. Indeed it will be a disaster for the people of Sudan and for the peace process and for the parties,' he said.
He said that by signing the agreement, the parties were not required to stop their political struggle but to pursue it by peaceful, democratic means.
The peace deal proposed by the African Union indicated the creation of a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority, with significant competencies and with effective representations by the rebel groups.
'At the same time, the rebel groups are to be given a major role in running the three existing states of Darfur. At the end of the interim period and following elections, an internationally monitored referendum is to be held to determine whether the people of Darfur want to have a region or to return to the status quo ante of three states', Salim said.
He said the mediation team also proposed that the northern border of Darfur should return to the border that existed on January 1, 1956, and the southern border to be dealt with according to the provisions of a comprehensive peace agreement.
From the BBC (which does not overwrite the source page of the BBC story in the earlier batch)...
Warring parties in Sudan's Darfur region have been given another 48 hours to reach agreement on a peace deal.
African Union (AU) mediators agreed the extension after a deadline at talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, passed without a deal.
The Sudanese government has agreed to sign the AU-backed agreement, but the rebels have no common position.
Two of the rebel factions have rejected the deal as it stands, but the main SLA group has not ruled out an agreement.
"We have to stop the clock for the next 48 hours to allow the parties to hold more talks," the AU's chief negotiator, Salim Ahmed Salim, said at a late-night meeting of negotiators from both sides.
"If we walk away from here, without a peace deal, the world will not forgive us," he said. "I urge the parties to reflect in the next 48 hours on how to breach the existing gap."
The extension came after a request from US officials for more time for the parties to resolve outstanding issues.
Long-standing neglect
The peace plan in question calls for pro-government Arab militias to be disarmed, and rebels fighters to be merged into Sudan's forces.
The 85-page draft also aims to end what Darfur rebels say is long-standing neglect of the province by the Khartoum government.
It calls for a one-off transfer of $300 [million] to Darfur, with $200 [million] a year for the region thereafter.
The Khartoum government announced its acceptance of the peace plan on Sunday.
The rebel groups have held a series of meetings to work out a common position.
Rebel refusal
Concern over the demand for rebel forces to lay down their arms before they are integrated into the Sudanese army appeared to be one sticking point.
Some rebel leaders are also reportedly demanding the Sudanese vice-presidency.
The small Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) and one faction of the main group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), refused to sign the deal as the midnight deadline passed.
Jem spokesman Ahmed Hussein told the BBC the peace plan failed to address his group's "minimum demands" and favoured the Khartoum government.
However the chief negotiator of the SLA left the possibility open that a deal could be reached. The BBC's Alex Last says that if the SLA mainstream can be brought on board, others are likely to follow.
Washington rally
As the talks continued, campaigners held a series of mass rallies across the United States calling for an end to the conflict.
Speakers in Washington included the actor George Clooney, who described Darfur as "the first genocide of the twenty-first century".
"We're at the doorstep of something we thought was impossible to dream of in the twenty-first century," he said.
"If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it'll all disappear, then it will. All of them, an entire generation of people."
The United Nations' top human rights official, Louise Arbour, meanwhile, began a six-day visit to Sudan, with a visit to Darfur first on the schedule.
The AU - which has 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur - has struggled to stop the violence between the rebels and the government-backed Janjaweed militias.
The conflict began in early 2003, when rebel groups began attacking government targets.
It has killed 200,000 people and driven more than two million from their homes.
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