Two rebel groups in the war-torn Darfur region on Tuesday rejected the agenda of peace talks with the Sudanese government in Abuja, insisting the item referring to the garrisoning of rebel forces should be taken out of the agenda.

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rejected to discuss the issue of garrisoning, a precursor to disarmament, on Wednesday morning as the talks broke up late Tuesday, while Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, also the chairman of the African Union that brokered the peace talks in Abuja, announced that the agenda had been unanimously agreed upon by delegates.

"We need this issue specifically, the issue of cantonment, taken out of the agenda," said JEM chief negotiator Ahmed Mohammed Tugod.

"Without a proper security arrangement, these forces are our guarantee," said SLM leader Abdel-Whaid Mohamed Ahmed el-Nur prior to Tuesday's talks.

Although Obasanjo was optimistic that the meeting would achieve the desired results, he declined to give any time frame for ending the talks, stating it would continue until a final solution was reached.

The Abuja meeting which started Monday comes a week before a UN Security Council deadline for the Sudanese government to take measures to disarm the Janjaweed militia in Darfur, which was not represented at the meeting, or face possible sanctions.

The Sudanese government is represented by Agriculture Minister Mazjoub al-Khalifa Ahmed, while the two rebel groups both sent their top negotiators. The meeting is also being attended by the leaders of Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo along with international organizations including the United Nations, and the Arab League.

The meeting is another effort by the African Union to help bring about a political solution to the Darfur conflict, which has left some 10,000 people dead and one million others displaced.

On July 15, the African regional bloc brokered a political dialogue in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa between the Sudanese government and the two rebel groups, yet the talks collapsed due to differences on various issues.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2004)