ABUJA (AFP) - A rebel leader in Nigeria's oil-rich south was set to resume talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo's government ahead of October 1 deadline set by the insurgents for oil multinationals and foreigners to pull out of Niger Delta, hub of Nigeria's crude production.
A source close to Obasanjo confirmed to AFP Thursday that talks have been under way since Wednesday.
A member of oil rebel chief Mujahid Dokubo Asari's entourage also told AFP by telephone that he had left for a meeting at the president's office.
A statement issued late Monday by Asari advised oil majors to leave the delta, which pumps all of Nigeria's 2.3 million barrels per day production, and warned that his Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force would declare an all-out war against the government on October 1 if the rebels' demands were not met.
In an interview in Abuja Thursday, Asari told AFP that his key demand was for a sovereign national conference (SNC) on the country's problems and warned he would resume hostilities if Obasanjo failed to meet that demand.
"The convocation of (a national conference) will lead to all other things. So the main issue we are discussing is convocation of SNC," he told AFP.
Opposition groups and critics, including 1986 Nobel laureate in literature Wole Soyinka, have in the past decade also called for a national conference to discuss Nigeria's problems, but the government has so far rejected their call.
Asari said he would return Thursday to southern Nigeria, whatever the outcome of the talks.
"We are leaving Abuja today (Thursday) back to Ijawland, whether the negotiation is concluded or not. We will leave Abuja and postpone the negotiations until a more appropriate time."
"Whether the ceasefire will continue to hold will depend on the outcome of our talks today," he said, adding that he was due to hold more talks with Obasanjo and other government officials.
"If the president says no to SNC, we go back to armed struggle. If we cannot achieve it (SNC) through peaceful means, then violence is inevitable. We are Ijaw people. We do not want to be Nigerians and we have the right to say so," he said.
Asari reaffirmed that he met Obasanjo on Wednesday and that the atmosphere was "cordial and friendly."
The rebel chief said that during talks with Obasanjo on Wednesday, they struck "a temporary arrangement" under which both sides agreed not to shoot at each other.
But oil prices resumed their march towards 50 dollars in New York on Thursday as the Nigeria peace talks and an unexpected rise in US crude inventories failed to ease traders' fears about supply.
Asari claims his movement wants "self-determination" for the Ijaw, Nigeria's fourth largest ethnic group located in the oil-rich delta, as well as control of the region's rich resources.
The region is the hub of oil exploration and production in Nigeria, Africa's largest and OPEC's sixth biggest oil exporter.
The government has accused Asari of oil trafficking and theft, and of using the proceeds from his illegal activities to finance his armed struggle for Ijaw self-determination.
Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub and the base of many oil multinationals, was calm but tense Thursday.
Nigerian troops patrolled the city and outlying areas as part of operation "Flush Out 3", launched last September 4 in after two armed gangs fought pitched battles in Rivers State for the control of the oil-rich region's resources.
According to Amnesty International, at least 500 people, mostly civilians, died in the unrest last month.