No breakthrough in Darfur talks but efforts still on

Reuters says all-night negotiations involving the warring parties from Darfur and two African heads of state failed to produce a breakthrough in deadlocked peace talks but further meetings were planned later on today.

"So far there's nothing new. We heard from the AU chairman the same proposals we'd heard before from the AU mediation team. It was very disappointing," said Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel movement.

"There's still a big gap. ... We have about nine core issues outstanding and decisions need to be taken on these issues at the political level," said Tugod of the JEM.

Note, the report points out the peace talks between the government and the rebels, in their seventh round, have been going on for almost TWO YEARS on the three key issues of power-sharing, wealth-sharing and security.