U.N. official meets with rebels in Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland traveled to the south Sudan border to meet with Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony to encourage peace talks.

The BBC reported the visit as part of recent moves to bolster talks aimed at ending Uganda's 20-year insurgency, a conflict in which Kony is accused of war crimes.

Egeland, accompanied by senior Sudan officials, went to a camp in the remote southern border where members of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, are gathered.

"We are talking about the peace talks in Juba," Kony told reporters.

The BBC reported this meeting as the first time a senior diplomat has met with the LRA, and said it marks a very significant step for the rebel group.

Officials had reported earlier that the LRA wanted the U.N. envoy to get the charges of war crimes against Kony dropped.