Darfur rebel groups in Doha-brokered talks

Five small Darfur rebel groups were holding Qatari-brokered talks on Sunday in Doha in preparation for wider peace negotiations with the Sudanese government, a spokesman for one of the factions said.

The talks opened on Saturday, four days after the most active rebel group in Sudan's restive western region of Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), rebuffed Qatari efforts to broker new talks with Khartoum.

"We... came to Doha for discussions so that the Doha podium would be collective and not just bilateral" between the Sudanese government and JEM, Mahjub Hussein, spokesman for one of the five factions, told AFP.

"We felt positive signs from the brokers... and our mission is to reach a collective and unanimous solution," said Mahjub, who represents the "Unity" faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-Unity).

The other factions involved in the Doha talks at the Qatari foreign ministry are the United Revolutionary Forces, the Khamis Abdullah Abakr wing of the Sudan Liberation Army, the Juba wing of the same movement and the Edriss Azraq wing of JEM.

JEM and the Sudanese government signed a confidence-building deal brokered by Qatar in February that had been intended to pave the way for a broader peace conference.

But JEM threatened to withdraw from the deal unless the Sudanese government backtracks on its decision to expel 13 humanitarian organisations after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on March 4 against President Omar al-Beshir on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

After a meeting with the Qatari state minister for foreign affairs on Tuesday, JEM accused Khartoum again of failing to honour the February deal.

"We maintain our position to not sit down with the government unless real and clear progress is achieved on the ground, in terms of prisoners, displaced people, and especially after humanitarian organisations were ousted," JEM delegation chief Jibril Khalil told AFP.

JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam said that the February deal "had been breached on many levels."

The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million fled their homes since rebels in Darfur rose up against Khartoum regime in February 2003. The Khartoum government says 10,000 have died.