Sudanese rebel leader rules out meeting with President Bashir

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army on July 8 ruled out a face-to-face meeting between its leader, John Garang, and Sudanese president Omar Bashir during a regional summit underway in the Kenyan capital.

"Bashir has in the past been reluctant to meet Garang. Why should Garang meet him now?" a rebel spokesman asked in a telephone interview.

The heads of state of Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda and the prime minister of Ethiopia, meeting under the aegis of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are expected to discuss the intractable civil war in Sudan and anarchy in Somalia, which is part of the grouping but is without a representative at the conference. Garang arrived in Nairobi earlier this week and has already met Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi, who chairs the two-day summit which began on July 8.

"Garang is here for private meetings with the IGAD heads of state, but this does not include Bashir," the SPLA spokesman said, adding, "He has not been invited to attend the summit proper because he is not a head of state."

The mainly Christian and animist SPLA has been fighting since 1983 to free southern Sudan from domination by the Muslim North. Repeated IGAD efforts at reconciliation have failed.

The fate of 114 Sudanese prisoners of war held by Uganda is also high on the agenda.