The African Union (AU) is exerting the last efforts to press the rebel groups in Sudan's Darfur region to accept an AU-sponsored peace deal as a deadline is to expire on Wednesday.

"The AU is intensifying efforts with other international parties concerned with the Darfur issue in order to persuade those rebel groups refusing the peace agreement to change their minds and join the peace process," spokesman of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) Nour al-Din Mazeni told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"The aim is that all should get on the peace train," the spokesman stressed.

The AU Peace and Security Council is expected to hold a meeting later Wednesday on the level of permanent representatives of the member states in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to study the next step no matter whether the Just and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Khalil Ibrahim and a Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) faction led by Abdu al-Wahid al-Nour will agree to sign the peace agreement.

The Sudanese government signed the peace deal with Minni Arkou Minawi, leader of the biggest faction in the SLM, in the Nigerian Capital Abuja on May 5.

But both Ibrahim and al-Nour decided to boycott the peace agreement, claiming that it did not meet all their demands.

The AU asked the two rebel leaders to sign the agreement before May 31, warning of serious consequences if the deadline was ignored.

Ambassador Baba Gana Kingiba, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission and Chairman of the AMIS, recently held talks in Khartoum with Dutch Development Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne and Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johans as well as ambassadors of the African countries and representatives of foreign companies in Sudan on ways to implement the Darfur peace agreement.

An AU delegation led by Ambassador Sam Aibok is currently visiting Sudan and holding consultations with Sudanese officials and rebel movements leaders for the same purpose.

Mazeni disclosed that the AMIS had adopted a publicity program to explain the Darfur peace agreement, adding that after the signing of the peace agreement the security situations in Darfur had deteriorated because of a biased campaign launched by the opposers of the peace agreement.

The spokesman also expressed a welcome of the pan-African body for the current journey of Minni Arkou Minawi in various areas in Darfur to hold meeting with SLM field commanders on the peace agreement.

Meanwhile, seven of the field commanders of Abdu al-Wahid al- Nour faction in the SLM, and one field commander of the JEM have announced their joining to the Darfur peace agreement.

The seven commanders left Darfur Tuesday for Addis Ababa for signing the agreement before the AU officials.

One of the SLM commanders, Mohammed Abdul Khalig, said in a statement that the peace had became a local, regional and international desire, calling on the other commanders of the faction to join the peace process for ending Darfur problem.

The Sudanese government has asked Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi to play a mediation role of urging the Darfur rebel groups refusing the peace agreement to sign it.

Presidential Advisor Majzoub al-Khalifa visited Tripoli earlier this week to deliver a message to Gaddafi from Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on the Darfur issue.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on May 16, warning that international sanctions would be imposed on the rebel leaders after the AU deadline expired if they failed to sign the peace agreement in time.

Source: Xinhua