A Darfur rebel leader called for a postponement of planned October peace talks with Sudan's government today.
Ahmed Abdel Shafie, head of a breakaway faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), demanded a "few months of total calm" in the strife-torn region before negotiations start.
He became the third senior rebel leader to raise concerns over UN and African Union-brokered talks planned for Libya on October 27th.
The SLM said that continued violence in Sudan's remote west meant that "the parties to the conflict in Darfur are not yet prepared to enter into genuine political negotiations".
"The timing of the forthcoming round of peace negotiations . . . needs to be reconsidered," it added.
Five rebel groups held a second day of negotiations in the Chadian capital N'Djamena today to hammer out a common position on the peace talks.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last week promised to observe a ceasefire in Darfur from the start of peace talks. But reports of clashes between government troops and rebel factions have continued to emerge from Sudan's remote west in the run up to the talks.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in ethnic and political conflict in Darfur since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglecting the region. The Sudanese government says 9,000 people have died.