The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) will sign peace protocols on Wednesday, marching towards a final comprehensive political settlement to the 21-year civil war, the Kenyan foreign ministry said Tuesday.

"A major breakthrough in the Sudan peace talks has been achieved," which "has realized agreements on key outstanding issues of power sharing, the two conflict areas of Nuba (Kordofan)Mountains and Southern Blue Nile, as well as Abyei," the ministry said in a press statement.

A signing ceremony of the protocols will take place on Wednesday in the peace talks' venue Naivasha , 80 km northwest of Nairobi, according to the statement.

"The signing of the protocols represents a major step towards the achievement of a final comprehensive political settlement to the conflict and an agreement on cease-fire and implementation modalities is expected be to signed soon," said the statement.

The Sudanese government and the SPLA have been holding peace talks since March 1994 in the Kenya town of Naivasha, under the auspices of The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD),a seven-member regional group in east Africa, consisting of Kenya,Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia and the Sudan.

Kenya is holding the current chairmanship of the IGAD ministerial sub-committee on the Sudan.

Some dignities, including United States Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Charles Snyder, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare and Kenyan Minister for Foreign Affairs Kalonzo Musyoka, are expected to witness Wednesday's signing ceremony.

The Sudanese civil war broke out in 1983 when the SPLA took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country, which has left some 2 million people dead, mostly throughwar-induced famine and diseases.

Source: Xinhua