CIVIL WAR Deal to end fighting in nearly all of Sudan

The region of Darfur is not included in the settlement.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Sudan's major warring parties have settled their last set of thorny disputes, lifting key obstacles to a U.S.-backed peace deal to end Africa's longest-running civil war, diplomats and rebel officials said Tuesday.
Representatives of the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army are scheduled to sign an agreement on the most recent settlements this afternoon in the Kenyan wildlife resort town of Naivasha, where the two sides have been meeting.
"This is very significant. This means we are very, very close to a comprehensive peace deal," said Waituru Kiboi, a Kenyan diplomat in Sudan's capital. "It is a major boost of confidence for the people of Sudan."
In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, an SPLA spokesman said last-minute negotiations were continuing, but that no problems were foreseen. "We're wrapping it up tonight," said Samson Kwaje, the spokesman. "We're on the way there."
An agreement on a comprehensive cease-fire and how to observe it will be the next step. That will be followed at some stage, officials said, by a peace deal that will officially end the 21-year civil war that pits the Arab and Muslim north, which runs the nation, against Christian and animist rebels in the south.
Region left out
The agreement wouldn't cover the conflict raging in Sudan's western region of Darfur, where an estimated 1 million people have been displaced and villages burned by marauding Arab militias. Aid agencies call Darfur one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The U.N. Security Council called for the immediate deployment of international monitors to Sudan's western Darfur region and put new pressure on the country's government to end the conflict there.
The statement adopted by the council's 15 member states Tuesday expresses deep concern over the ethnic violence in Darfur. It is not legally binding, but it carries moral weight and puts new pressure on Sudan to end the violence.
"This is a chance for Sudan to become part of the solution instead of being part of the problem," U.S. Deputy Ambassador Stuart Holliday said, adding that the council has already seen some results. The Sudanese government announced last week that it was easing restriction on humanitarian groups in Darfur.
Is government involved?
Aid agencies say Sudan's Arab-dominated government is providing support to Arab militiamen accused of waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against black Africans in the Darfur region.
Sudan President Omar el-Bashir denies the government is involved and rejects the description of the violence as ethnic cleansing, saying the militia is defending itself against rebels.
The aid group Oxfam warned Monday that thousands of people in the region face disease and starvation over the next three months as food and fresh water supplies run dangerously low.
The U.S. Agency for International Development airlifted 20,000 blankets to the area Tuesday but said fighting was hampering the flow of assistance.