The African Union stepped up pressure on Sudan’s holdout rebels to sign a deal to end Darfur’s three-year civil war and appealed for a stronger African peacekeeping force to monitor implementation of the peace agreement signed by the government and the main rebel group.

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.

Sudan appeared ready today to agree to disarm Arab militias in Darfur and to accept more rebels into its security forces, key concessions that could clear the way for real progress at the Darfur peace talks.

The Sudanese government confirmed today that it will sign a draft agreement with rebels from its Darfur region as talks continued despite a question marking hanging over the deal.

A Sudanese Darfur rebel faction has demanded that the African Union (AU) extend its deadline for the concluding peace talks, as Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo pressured the warring sides to sign a proposed deal.

Two main rebel groups in Sudan’s conflict-ridden Darfur region signed a declaration yesterday pledging to adhere to a ceasefire and help facilitate the flow of humanitarian relief aid.

SUDAN'S government and Arab militias are waging a joint "scorched-earth" campaign of murder, rape and looting of non-Arab ethnic communities in western Sudan, displacing over one million people, Human Rights Watch has said.

THE UN refugee agency is facing a race against time to help more than 100,000 impoverished Sudanese refugees who have spilled across the border into Chad to escape increasing violence in their homeland.