Sudan's government is willing to meet rebel groups from Darfur anywhere, any time and would commit to a unilateral ceasefire while peace talks are held, Khartoum's ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday.

Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem told a panel there were now up to 19 rebel groups in Darfur and urged the international community to unite them.

"I can assure you that the government will observe unilaterally a ceasefire, cessation of hostilities, today if they come to the negotiating table," Abdalhaleem said.

"We want to sit today with the non-signatories in any place, whether it's South Sudan, in Addis Abba, in Eritrea or in Libya," he said. "We want without any delay for groups there to unite or at least to come to the negotiating table."

The United Nations and the African Union are organizing peace talks. But it is expected to be months before an initial dialogue is underway.

"For many forces in the United States the issue is not Darfur, the issue is regime change," he said. "So please don't deceive people and tell that you are very passionate and very concerned about Darfur."

But Lauren Landis, the US State Department's senior envoy to Sudan and a member of the panel, said a regime change was "furthest from our mind", adding that Washington would likely announce new sanctions soon against Khartoum if the country does not agree to accept a large force of UN peacekeepers.

Source: China Daily/agencies