Sudan announces readiness to extend ceasefire agreement with rebels

Khartoum has announced it will extend the ceasefire agreement with the rebels, noting that the move towards a final agreement to end two decades of war is still slow.

In a press interview in Nairobi, the advisor of the Sudanese President for peace affairs Ghazi Salah Eddine denied the existence of a time limit to reach an agreement. This denial came after the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said last week that reaching a peace agreement might be within two weeks.

The Sudanese advisor said that Khartoum will continue negotiations with the rebels as far as there is hope to success. But he added that the pace of progress attained in the last round was small.

Salah expressed the government's readiness to extend the ceasefire agreement signed between the two sides in October 2002 which will expire on June 30. He said that all warring sides are bored of the war. He added it will be "wise to renew the ceasefire agreement ratification."