Failed meeting between al-Mahdi, Garang

The meeting held between the chairman of the Sudanese Nation's Party ( Hizb al-Ummah) al-Sadeq al-Mahdi and the leader of the rebel movement John Garang has failed. It was held in the presence of the Nigerian President, at the Nigerian capital Abuja.

In a statement to the Sudanese daily al-Anbaa issued on Saturday, the first deputy for the chairman of the Congress Party Abdul Nour al- Daem said that al-Sadeq al-Mahdi, during the meeting, proposed three issues, mainly concentrating on issues of peace, the change and democracy, but the rebellion movement was persistence on its position in clinging to the war agenda.

Nour al-Daem noted that the " Garang" movement aims out of the meeting to bring back the Nation's Party to the lines of the opposition coalition once again. He explained that this coalition has collapsed together with the alliances held between the Sudanese Communist Party and the Democratic Federal Party because of the arrangements made at the meantime to for the return back of the Democratic Federal Party, led by Muhammad Othman al-Meir Ghani to the country.