UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy for Darfur has met the Sudanese Foreign Minister, a key former rebel and other senior figures in Khartoum.
The envoy, Jan Eliasson, former Swedish foreign minister and General Assembly president, described Wednesday's talks in the Sudanese capital as fruitful and constructive, Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters at U.N. world Headquarters in New York.
Eliasson met with Foreign Minister Lam Akol and Minni Minawi, a senior presidential assistant and the chairman of a wing of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army that signed the Darfur Peace Agreement last May. The envoy also spoke with two presidential advisers.
Eliasson is to hold talks Thursday with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, who last month accepted a three-phase plan culminating in the deployment of a hybrid U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to replace the existing AU monitoring force. Such a force is expected to comprise up to 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers.
The envoy is then scheduled to head to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
Eliasson was appointed last month to help re-energize diplomatic efforts to obtain a durable solution, based on the DPA, to a conflict that has left more than four million people dependent on outside aid.
Fighting erupted in 2003 between Government forces, allied militias and rebel groups seeking greater autonomy for Darfur, an arid and impoverished region roughly the size of France on Sudan's western flank. Several rebel groups have not signed the DPA and deadly clashes have continued since the pact was struck in May.
Senior U.N. officials have described Darfur as the scene of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and Ban has called the crisis one of his top priorities.
