A quick peace deal for Sudan's western Darfur region may be possible after a separate agreement was reached between Khartoum and southern Sudanese rebels, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Saturday. Sudan's government and southern rebels on Friday committed themselves to ending Africa's longest civil war by Dec. 31, signing a pledge in front of 15 U.N. Security Council ambassadors in Nairobi, not far from the Kenyan resort of Naivasha where they held negotiations. Annan, speaking at a Tanzania summit on Africa's troubled Great Lakes region, said he met Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in Dar es Salaam and been assured Khartoum now hopes to speed the pace of talks on Darfur to finish them by the end of the year. "They wanted to inform me that they wanted to finish the Darfur negotiations perhaps even before Naivasha," Annan said. "The Naivasha agreement, both sides agree, can be a basis for a settlement in Darfur." --More 2043 Local Time 1743 GMT
