Rice visits Sudan to follow up peace talks
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-22 09:34

The US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on Thursday paid a one-day visit to Sudan to follow up efforts made by the Sudanese government and international community to realize peace in the African country.

She held talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice President John Garang on bilateral relations, a comprehensive peace agreement concerning southern Sudan, as well as the humanitarian, security and political situation in Darfur.

Al-Bashir briefed Rice on the efforts exerted by his government to normalize the situation in Darfur and he thanked her for the efforts the US administration has been exerting to realize peace in Sudan.

During his meeting with Rice, Garang called on the US administration to fulfill its pledges made in April at an international donor conference in Oslo.

It was Rice's first visit to Sudan after she took office as US secretary of state, which came after two trips paid earlier by her deputy Robert Zoellick.

After intensive talks in Khartoum, Rice went to visit a camp for displaced people in Sudan's war-torn western Darfur region, meeting women who were alleged violence victims.

The US top diplomat, who flew in early Thursday from Senegal, expressed hope that stability could be restored in Darfur following the peace agreement signed between the Sudanese government and southern rebels.

Sudan's arid and impoverished western region of Darfur has been in the grip of civil war for more than two years after black African groups rebelled against what they saw as persecution from Khartoum's Arab-led government.

Thousands of people are estimated to have been killed and many more driven from their homes in the violence.

Rice was quoted by a Sudanese official source as saying that it is important for the Sudanese government "to do its best to end the violence in Darfur."

At a joint news conference held Wednesday with Senegal Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, Rice urged the African Union to speed its deployment of troops in Darfur.

"The United States cannot do this alone. ... We need everybody to make a maximum effort, including the AU and including other members of the Security Council," she said.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told a press conference after meeting with Rice on Thursday that he had called on the US administration to lift economic sanctions on Sudan.

The United States recalled its ambassador to Sudan Tim Carney in 1997 after Washington imposed sanctions on the country, accusing it of supporting terrorism and violating human rights and threatening the stability of its neighbors.

Ties between the two countries remained frosty since then. The current top US representative in Sudan is a charge d'affaires.

Following a long period of tension, the US-Sudanese relations have improved recently, with a joint committee being established to discuss ways of normalizing relations.

Ismail described Rice's visit to Sudan as important and "sends clear signals that the relations between Sudan and the US have reached important measures".

The two sides are committed to working together to restore peace in Sudan, he said, adding that the visit has given Rice an opportunity to see for herself the situation in Sudan.

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