SIRTE, Libya - Crippled by the absence of Darfur rebel leaders, U.N.-brokered peace talks ground to a halt Sunday, with officials saying there could be no key steps until the fighters decided how to negotiate with the Sudanese government.
The U.N. and African Union joint mediation team refused to say the conference was being adjourned, insisting instead that preliminary low-level talks were part of meeting's first phase before full-fledged negotiations could begin.
"Only after that period ... of approximately three weeks, will we go into substantial negotiations," said Jan Eliasson, the United Nations' chief mediator for the peace conference.
No major Darfur rebel chiefs were present in the Libyan coastal town of Sirte for the opening of the talks Saturday, dashing hopes that a quick peace agreement could be reached to end more than four years of fighting with the Sudanese government.
Though mediators cautioned that the Libyan talks were not ending because rebel leaders were absent, Liu Guijin, the special envoy from China - which has considerable leverage on Sudan's government, said the peace conference would likely be suspended within a few days to allow for more constructive peace talks later.
"The adjournment is not a sign of failure. It's a preparation of other steps," Liu said.
Eliasson said more chiefs were expected to arrive in Sirte to prepare for the negotiations. He said preparations could last as long as three weeks. Other rebel leaders want to hold their own preparatory meetings in Darfur.
"I don't think we should dramatize whether these preparations take place here or somewhere else," Eliasson said in Sirte, stating the U.N. and African Union would however "prefer to have them here."
U.N. mediation spokesmanAhmed Fawzi insisted that despite the talks' slow start, officials were prepared for a threephrase conference.
Only during the conference's third phase will the Sudanese government and rebels hold "negotiations on substantive issues," Fawzi said. The U.N. and African Union, along with the rebels who attended, hope the boycotting rebel leaders will reconsider and join the key talks in the intervening time.
Sudan's government negotiator warned that Khartoum would have no patience for absent rebel leaders. Nafie Ali Nafie insisted the handful of low-level rebels attending "really represent the movements on the ground in Darfur." He agreed that the conference should be adjourned but only to give "those who came here" more time to agree.
"To adjourn negotiations for those who didn't come is a wrong signal," Nafie told reporters.
The rebels' main leaders who have boycotted the talks say the groups now present in Sirte are government stooges with no fighters in Darfur and geared at weakening their position.
As the first working session of talks opened Sunday, a rebeldelegate read a message from the few rebel groups present. "We need additional time, we need more time ... to prepare the negotiations," said Tajadine Bechir Niam, a delegate from a splinter faction of the Justice and Equality Movement rebels. He called on the boycotting rebel leaders to join so that a lasting peace could be achieved.
Ahmed Diraige, another rebel delegate, said "it would be normal and logical to postpone until everybody is here." He, too, said key rebel chiefs could still be attending the talks.
Sudan's government delegation announced a unilateral cease-fire Saturday, and Niam said Sunday the rebels present were "willing to look into a cessation of hostilities in consultation with our missing brethren." But Diraige said the government has breached numerous ceasefires in the past and asked for U.N. and African Union guarantees it would stick to its wordthis time.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes in Darfur since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003, accusing it of decades of discrimination.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/29/2007