Two of the three rebel groups in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region are refusing to sign a peace plan today, jeopardising efforts to end the bloodbath that has cost at least 180,000 lives.

The US and Britain pressed Sudan’s government and Darfur rebels to meet today’s deadline for a peace deal, even as ground units stepped up fighting that has killed at least 180,000 people and left millions more homeless.

The African Union will end talks among warring parties in Sudan’s Darfur region by April 30 if the Khartoum government and rebel factions fail to agree to a peace deal, a senior mediator says.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to shore up one fragile peace accord in Africa while preserving hopes for another in the Middle East.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged donors yesterday to fund a bigger African force to help end bloodshed in Darfur, where experts say hundreds are still dying daily nine months after the mission first deployed.

THE passing of the deadline set by the UN security council for the Sudan government to disarm the Janjaweed exposes yet again the failures of the international community.