The Sudanese government is willing to start unconditional talks with the National Redemption Front rebel group to stop the violence in Darfur but sees no need for a new peace deal, a senior presidential adviser said.
Nafie Ali Nafie, addressing reporters in Egypt, South Africa, France, and Britain through a satellite link from Khartoum last night, also said Sudan would not accept the presence of UN troops in the war-ravaged area, even in return for the United States lifting economic sanctions.
"We accept dialogue (with the NRF) without imposing any condition on them and without accepting any condition. If we agree then we will thank God, and if we don't we will continue our dialogue," he said.
The NRF, an alliance of rebel groups that rejected as inadequate a May peace accord signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja, has said it is ready to negotiate with the Khartoum government but wants a new agreement.
The only Darfuri signatory to the deal, which has failed to stop the violence in Sudan's vast and remote west, was one faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement.
Nafie's appearance was the first of a series of video conferences the Sudanese government is organising to explain its position on Darfur after repeated accusations by Western powers that it was supporting militias to fight mostly non-Arab rebels.
The United Nations estimates that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since the conflict flared in 2003.
Khartoum denies any link to the militias, known locally as Janjaweed and drawn mainly from Arab tribes.
The United States and its allies have been pressing Sudan to accept a UN resolution to deploy a 20,000-strong UN force in Darfur, replacing the under-funded and ill-equipped African Union force that has failed to stop the fighting.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan has said the presence of UN troops would amount to an invasion.