ABUJA, Aug 24 (AFP) - The Sudan government and rebel groups from the war-torn Darfur region have unanimously adopted an agenda for peace talks, the African Union's chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said Tuesday.
The Nigerian leader said the parties will take a brief break before resuming talks on the first item on the agenda, which is the provision of humanitarian aid to the western Sudan's Darfur region.
"I believe that we made progress," he told reporters.
"This morning, we adopted unanimously the draft agenda with minor amendments," he said.
Obasanjo said it was impossible to say when the first round of talks would end.
The negotiating teams had gathered for the second day running at the headquarters of the west African bloc ECOWAS, along with the Nigerian leader and several senior African and UN officials.
Before them was a single page outline of possible negotiating points, which was drawn up on Monday by AU officials and which covers a broad of list of outstanding humanitarian, security, economic and political issues.
AU leaders hope that if agreement on a political strategy can be reached it will reinforce efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Darfur, where more than 30,000 people have died and 1.2 million been made homeless in 18 months of conflict.
Day one of the summit revealed deep divisions between the rebels and the government over the scope of the meeting, and underlined how far the AU still is from being able to deploy a 2,000-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur, where more than one million people have been displaced and tens of thousands killed in 18 months of war.
Both sides at the gathering at the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) insist on the importance of a ceasefire signed between them in April this year, but each accuses the other of breaching it.