Egypt has intensified its efforts to urge for a political settlement to the crisis of the western Sudanese region by a shuttle diplomacy with new proposals and decisions to boost diplomatic representation and military presence in the troubled region.

In a verbal messages to the United Nations, the African Union ( AU), the EU and foreign ministers of the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit called for the reviving of the political process in Darfur under the auspices of the UN and the AU, to encourage the inclusion of the Abuja peace agreement holdouts to pave the way for the restoration of peace in Darfur, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.

The Darfur Peace Agreement was signed between the Sudanese government and a main rebel faction in the Nigerian capital of Abuja last May.

Abul Gheit sent his message as Sudanese National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader Mohamed Othman al-Merghani announced that leaders of Sudanese political parties and groups that have not signed the Abuja peace agreement would meet in Cairo this month.

Al-Merghani, who has been living outside Sudan for the past 17 years, made the announcement after his talks in Cairo with visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Tuesday night.

Al-Bashir, who arrived here on Monday on an official visit to Egypt, held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who noted after the meeting on Monday that dialogue, not sanctions, should be the way to solve the current problem in Darfur.

On Tuesday, Mubarak held talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Chadian President Idriss Deby in Libyan capital of Tripoli and discussed comprehensive reconciliation in Sudan, a solution for Darfur and the relations between Sudan and Chad, which signed a reconciliation deal on May 3 in the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh to stipulate respects for each other's territorial integrity, not to support opposition forces in the other country.

Besides, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Monday warned that slapping sanctions on Sudan would deteriorate the situation in Darfur, urging the UN and the African Union (AU) to exert utmost efforts to reach a political settlement of the Darfur crisis when he met here with UN Secretary General's Envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson and AU Envoy to Darfur Salem Ahmed Salem.

Egypt has put forward a proposal which includes a timetable, objectives and a set of incentives and penalties to ensure reaching a swift agreement between the Khartoum government and the rebel movements, as well as a call for holding a meeting to be attended by regional and international parties to garner support for the proposal, Abul Gheit said.

Egypt has decided on opening a diplomatic representation office in Darfur to follow up all developments in the war-torn region, he added.

Furthermore, Egypt announced in late April that it would send 750 troops and 130 military supervisors in the next phase of U.N. troops sent to Darfur, while Egypt is participating in the AU peacekeeping force to Darfur with 33 policemen and 50 military officers as observers.

The Sudanese government announced on April 16 its acceptance of the heavy support package, which is the second step of the three- phased UN peacekeeping plan aimed at deploying a hybrid UN-AU force in Darfur.

During the ongoing first phase, the light support package, 105 officers, 33 police advisers and 48 civilian officials are being delivered to Darfur by the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

Many civilians in Darfur have been displaced and a number of civilians have been killed since tribal clashes and anti- government rebellion erupted in February 2003 in the country.

Source: Xinhua