Khartoum accuses Washington and the rebels of foiling the negotiations

The Sudanese government announced yesterday that the peace talks which lasted for three months with Darfur's rebels in Abuja ended and accused the US of increasing the determination of the rebels to avoid compromising for a solution.

Diplomatic sources said that the UN Security Council might vote today on an American draft resolution threatening Sudan of oil sanctions if it will not work for restoring back security to Darfur.

One of the mediators of the African union announced earlier that the negotiations will be closed on Friday "whether the rebels signed or not the humanitarian protocol" which was reached on September 2nd.

The rebels met yesterday with members of the mediation delegation to inform about their position concerning signing the humanitarian protocol which all sides concerned linked its signing to reaching an agreement about security. A matter which was not finalized though it was negotiated for two extra weeks. However, both the mediation and the rebels refused to disclose the decision before it was informed to President of Nigeria, the current President of the African Union.

Meantime, the American ambassador to the UN John Danforth said following consultations at the UN Security Council on the draft resolution on Thursday "I expect that the voting will be most likely on Saturday." Several diplomats explained that this draft resolution on which the UN introduced amendments to avoid a Chinese veto, might witness other amendments in order to get the support of a large number of member states at the council. Danforth said " we held very positive talks and we believe we will get the necessary votes to adopt the resolution." To be adopted, any resolution at the UN Security Council should get 9 votes out of 15, with one of the five permanent member states ( USA, Russia, France, Britain and China) not using the veto to foil it.