Sudan signs deal with second Darfur rebel group

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan signed a ceasefire agreement with a second Darfur rebel group on Thursday, part of a government campaign to resolve the conflict in Sudan's violent west before elections next month.

Government officials signed the deal with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella group of small factions, in Qatar, weeks after Khartoum agreed a now faltering accord with Darfur's powerful insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

Other rebel groups have dismissed the LJM as insignificant and are still refusing to deal with Khartoum seven years after the start of the conflict.

Darfur's mostly non-Arab rebels splintered after the early years of the conflict, which started in 2003.

Their fragmentation, and lingering distrust among the warring parties, has bedevilled efforts to get insurgents round the negotiating table with Khartoum..

Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told reporters in the Qatari capital Doha, where peace talks have been taking place, that Thursday's agreement was an important step.

"We call on all movements and factions including Justice and Equality Movement ... to join in serious and honest negotiations as soon as possible," he said.

Negotiations between the JEM and Khartoum, which were supposed to have followed last month's ceasefire and pave the way for a final peace accord by March, are stalled.