Talks intended to end a 17-month insurgency in Darfur region of western Sudan have broken after the Sudanese government refused to agree to rebel demands.
The negotiations ended late on Saturday after mediators failed to get the warring parties to reach any agreement, said Ki Doulaye, head of conflict management at the African Union, which mediated the talks.
The rebels were not ready to discuss a political agreement unless their demands were met, he said.
Two rebel groups — the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army — took up arms against the Sudanese government in February 2003, demanding a greater share of power and wealth in Africa's largest nation. Violence in Darfur has since made more than 1m homeless and killed an estimated 30,000 people.
The United Nations has described the situation in the vast, impoverished region as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The negotiations took place amid increasing international pressure on President Omar Hassan el-Bashir's administration to disarm pro-government Arab militia, known as Janjaweed.
The Janjaweed has been accused of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's African tribes.
Among the rebels' preconditions were calls for a timetable for the disarmament of the Janjaweed and the setting up of an international inquiry to investigate allegations of genocide.
"By refusing to accept our demands the government in Khartoum is saying that it is not prepared to discuss the disarmament of the Janjaweed, who are conducting genocide against the Africans in Sudan," Ahmed Tugod Lissan, a member of the Justice and Equality Movement, told Reuters.
But officials from the Arab-dominated government insisted that they were committed to peace. "We came to Addis Ababa with an open mind to discuss the crisis in Darfur and seek a peaceful solution, but we are deeply disappointed by the position of the two rebel groups," said Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab, Sudan's minister of state for foreign relations.
The talks, which began late Thursday, were mediated by the AU and Chad. More than 170,000 refugees have fled to Chad. Facing the threat of UN sanctions, the government has promised to disarm the Janjaweed, but aid workers have said attacks by the militia have continued.
Last week, US senators introduced a bipartisan resolution urging US President George W. Bush's administration to declare that the situation in Darfur amounted to genocide.
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