Sudan's government and main rebel group have agreed to extend a ceasefire pact when it expires at the end of the month, Kenya's foreign minister said today.
"One of the things we have agreed as a first measure will be an extension of the cessation of hostilities agreement. This will be extended for another two months and an agreement to that effect will be signed," Foreign Minister Mr Kalonzo Musyoka told reporters.
Kenya has been hosting talks between Sudan's first vice-president and the leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which are aimed at ending two decades of war in Africa's largest country.
The civil war broke out in 1983 and pits the Islamist government in the north against rebels fighting for more autonomy in the mainly animist and Christian south.
When asked about the progress of the talks between Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and SPLA chief Mr John Garang, Musyoka said he was "very encouraged".
"The two brothers will continue to talk and they will work very, very hard. The amount of international goodwill is simply overwhelming and everybody in Sudan is looking forward to the successful outcome of these consultations," Mr Musyoka said.
Talks between the two men and their aides have lasted more than two weeks at Lake Naivasha, some 90 km (55 miles) from Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Despite agreeing last year to give southerners the right to a referendum on secession after a six-year transitional period, the two parties are still struggling to hammer out an agreement on several key issues including how to manage security during the interim period. The two sides first signed a temporary truce in October last year. It has been renewed several times as initial timescales for a comprehensive peace deal have proved over-ambitious.