Issues that are still pending in the inter- Sudanese peace talks

The people's army for the liberation of Sudan, one of the main rebel group in southern Sudan said on Wednesday that there are still some pending points in the peace talks with the Sudanese government in order to put an end to the war which lasted for 21 years.

The spokesman for the movement Yasser Araman said " we have solved the basic points and what is left is an agreement on the rate of participation in the authority inside the government and in two areas," which are al-Nouba mountain and the southern blue Nile. Araman explained that the rebels ask for a rate of 38% of the posts in the provisional government while the authority wants only to give them almost 28%.

He said that the talks between the leader of the people's army, John Garang, and the Sudanese vice president, Ali Othman Taha, work for eliminating differences over parliaments seats, and posts in the executive authority for the two areas. The US announced on Tuesday that the two conflicting sides in Sudan notified Washington they agreed on items of a peace agreement which puts an end to the longest inter- African conflict.

The American official in the African affairs department at the US Department Of State Charles Snider arrives today (Thursday) in Kenya to help in formulating the agreement, according to the American embassy in Kenya.