Chad, Sudan ready for peace, says talks leader

CHAD: THE LEADERS of Chad and Sudan are ready to sign a peace agreement at a meeting in Dakar next week, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade said yesterday.

Mr Wade is to host talks between the two neighbouring countries aimed at defusing the conflict between them and to help bring peace to Darfur.

"We will have an agreement in two terms, an agreement in general terms and an implementation agreement," he said after meeting French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. Mr Wade said Sudan's president Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Chadian president Idriss Déby would agree "to stop supporting opponents of the other on his own territory".

They have accused each other of fomenting conflict on their common border and in Darfur, where 200,000 people have been killed since 2003.

© 2008 Reuters

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times