The political talks on Darfur between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups collapsed on Saturday, casting shadow over the efforts made by the interna tional community to resolve what has been called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Not only dashing the high expectations poured on the peace process, the talks' abrupt end in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa also marked lack of mutual trust between the rebels and the Khartoum government, making later talks even more complicated.

The two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), set six-point demands on Thursday at the opening of the talks. As the Sudanese government tossed out the conditions, the rebel delegations refused to talk face to face with Khartoum unless their demands are fully fulfilled.

Analysts familiar with the situation in Africa's largest country said lack of trust and compromise doomed the international effort.

"No constructive result would come out from the negotiation without the presence of high level leaders from the rebels," said an official who is currently working for an international organization based in Rome, Italy.

Indigenous farmers in the western Sudanese region of Darfur have long feuded with Arab nomads over shrinking resources, especially water and usable land. The conflict has escalated into what the United Nations called the world's current worst humanitarian crisis since the indigenous revolted against the Khartoum government in February 2003, as over 10,000 people were killed and one million displaced, largely blamed on a well-armed Arab militia called the Janjaweed.

Disarming the Janjaweed tops the rebel preconditions. The rebelalso accuses the Khartoum government of arming the Janjaweed in a campaign to contain the revolt through methods "bordering on ethnic cleansing," a charge firmly denied by Khartoum.

The Sudanese government delegation said disarming the Janjaweed was "unpractical," as they don't control the shadowy militia, a claim endorsed by quite a few analysts, as the remote Darfur region is roughly the size of Iraq, and Khartoum is still battlingto emerge from a decades-long conflict in southern Sudan.

As the talks went awry, the rebels and the government accused each other of lack of commitment.

"We came to Addis Ababa with an open mind to discuss the crisisin Darfur and seek a peaceful solution, but we are deeply disappointed by the position of the two rebel groups who set preconditions for the talks," said Ibrahim Mohammed, secretary general of the Sudanese Parliament and also spokesman for the Sudanese government delegation.

The rebels begged to differ. "Our demands should be fully fulfilled toward progress," said Ahmed Tugod Lissan of the JEM. "It's difficult to conduct political dialogue with the Sudanese government's failure to disarm Janjaweed militia and try criminals."

The international community is fully aware of the distrust between the two sides. The United Nations called for confidence building between the Sudanese government and the two rebel groups after the talks collapsed Saturday.

"The rebels resisted negotiations until their demands are met. We need process of confidence building. Otherwise we can't talk ofinfrastructure changes," Ahmed Sahnoun, special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said in Addis Ababa Saturday.

However, AU officials have said the talks had never looked verypromising because Darfur's top rebel leaders had not been scheduled to come to Addis Ababa while the consultation with the AU mediation was going on.

A western diplomat here held that what the rebels have done might be buying time. As the United States drafted a UN security council sanctions resolution that would put an immediate travel and arms ban on the Janjaweed leaders, it would also threaten to extend the ban to Khartoum within a month if the government did not stop the killings, rape and uprooting of indigenous villagers in Darfur.

Khartoum has said disarming Arab militias is hard, because somemilitia groups are illegal and underground and the government needs time to address the issue.

Khartoum delegation spokesman Ibrahim said Friday that the government is working on the disarmament of the militia, but said the process takes time and resources, as the government doesn't control the militia.

"The demands of the rebels are not acceptable and it is a disrespect to the African Union," Ibrahim said Saturday. "It is a delaying tactic. The rebels are not serious."

Although the rebels and Khartoum can both wait, analysts say, Darfur's displaced cannot as they are threatened by the looming rainy season in August and September.

According to experts from the World Health Organization, the displaced people from Darfur are dying at a rate of about 200 a day, and the figure could go up to "350 a day" as the rains could make many parts of Darfur hard to reach, blocking aid and turning the already squalid camps into breeding ground for infectious diseases.

Source: Xinhua