The peace talks between the Ugandan government and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are faltering following a walkout of the LRA delegation which cited frequent attacks by the Ugandan army as the reason.

LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny said in Nairobi on Friday that the LRA withdrew from the southern Sudan-mediated peace talks because of statements made by the Sudanese government that they were no longer welcome in Juba, capital of the south Sudan, where the talks were continuing.

Addressing a news conference in Nairobi, Olweny said, "In deed, in the circumstances and due to security considerations, LRA/M delegation to the peace talks is not going back to Juba, but rather would prefer that the talks resume in a neutral venue, preferably in Kenya."

He said his group was still committed to talks aimed at ending the 20-year-old insurgency in northern Uganda and appealed to Kenya, which chairs the seven-nation mediation body the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to salvage the peace talks which they said have collapsed in Juba.

"We appealed to the chairman of the IGAD, President Mwai Kibaki to urgently intervene and convene IGAD conference with a view to salvaging Uganda peace talks which have collapsed in Juba, by agreeing on a new alternative venue for the resumption of the talks," Olweny told journalists in Nairobi.

Speaking in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Tuesday, Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir warned that the LRA, which has bases in southern Sudan and the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is no longer welcome guests on the Sudanese territory.

The talks between the Ugandan rebels and the government which kicked off in July were set to resume in Juba this month. A truce was agreed in the talks last August, bringing relative calm to northern Uganda.

Source: Xinhua