Taha, Garang resume discussions on pending issues

Kenya's foreign ministry announced yesterday that SudanÕs (First) Vice-President, Ali Othman Muhammad Taha, and the leader of the rebels, John Garang, will hold a meeting on Thursday at Nivasha resort, north west Nairobi, Kenya to discuss pended issues between the two sides.

These issues include the sharing of authority, resources, and the status of what is called margined areas ( Blue Nile and al-Nouba and Eiby mountains) before signing a comprehensive peace agreement between the government of Khartoum and southern rebels.

The press office at the Kenya foreign ministry said that the meeting was due on Wednesday, but was postponed for at least 24 hours. According to sources close to the negotiations, if Taha and Garang are to be late from the set schedule, it would be because of protocol reasons.

Mediators of the Government's Authority (IGAD) -- composed of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan -- said that Taha and Garang will be briefed before their works on the work of the committee and its proposals.

According to IGAD's schedule, this session of negotiation will continue until October 25th. The three committees in charge of studying pending issues have not stopped work in Nivasha following the recent tour of negotiations in September which resulted on an agreement on security, according to IGAD's mediators.

One of IGAD's representatives in Nivasha said that work of the committees attained a fundamental progress concerning the sharing of authority and resources, noting that this quality of progress, no matter how small, constitutes a base that would help the leaders to settle the conflicts.

On September 25th, Khartoum and the southern rebels signed in Kenya an agreement concerning security.