The African Union (AU) Thursday urged conflicting parties in Sudan's restive western region of Darfur to stop confrontations, warning that a military escalation would endanger the peace accord signed in May.

"I call on all the parties to commit themselves to the ceasefire and refrain from doing anything that endangers the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA)," Saeed Djinnit, the AU commissioner for peace and security, told reporters at the inauguration of the preparatory committee for the conference of Darfurian-Darfurian dialogue.

The committee headed by Ethiopian diplomat Abdul Mohammed was founded under supervision of the AU with the aim of facilitating the inter-dialogue among the Darfurians.

On his part, Abdul Mohammed put forward five principles for the success of the conference, including the participation of all the Darfurians, the flexibility in discussing problems, the effective participation of the international society, not to use the conference as political tactics and overpassing the events and tragedies in the past.

Sudanese Presidential Adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa also promised that the Sudanese government would exert all the efforts to help the preparatory committee to achieve the success and realize a real dialogue among the Darfurians.

He reiterated his government's readiness to hold talks with the rebel groups which had refused to sign the DPA and to convince them to join the peace process.

The Sudanese government signed the DPA with a main faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Minni Arkou Minawi in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5.

But other rebel groups, including another SLM faction led by Abdelwahid Mohammed al-Nour and the Justice and Equality Movement led by Khalil Ibrahim, rejected the peace agreement, arguing the agreement had failed to meet all their demands.

The AU delegation headed by Djinnit arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday on a four-day visit in Sudan, during which they will get acquainted with the situation in Darfur and the progress of implementing the DPA.

Source: Xinhua