The Sudanese government on Monday held in the Qatari capital Doha peace talks with the Libration and Justice Movement (LJM), a newly-integrated grouping for several minor rebels, with power-sharing expected to top the agenda.
Monday's talks followed close-door consultations on Sunday among the two parties and joint mediators. In March, the Sudanese government signed a framework and ceasefire agreement with the LJM and the following peace talks stopped for several months due to the April presidential elections.
Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, from the LJM, told Xinhua before the talks that the group would demand an equal power sharing deal based on population density during the negotiations.
He said without addressing the root causes of the conflicts, a final peace agreement could not be reached. Besides, the refugees of conflicts should also have access to their original places, he added.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said Saturday the current round of peace negotiations in Doha would be the final talks with any armed factions in Darfur.
Being invited, the key guerrilla in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) decided to remain absent.
The JEM, singed a ceasefire deal with the Sudanese government in February, last month accused the government of continuing attacks on them, and said it "froze" further peace talks. But Khartoum denied that accusation.
Another major rebel group, the hard line Sudan Liberation Army rebel, has so far shunned the Sudanese government and mediator's offer to join the peace process.
Addressing the opening session, mediator Qatar's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud said he hoped the relevant parties could "exchange their ideas" on this occasion to achieve the final peace in the western Sudanese region. He emphasized that the talks would "not exclude any parties".
Echoing Al-Mahmoud, the joint mediator of the United Nations and African Union for Darfur Djibrill Bassole said "some momentum should be injected into the Darfur peace process to achieve as much fruit as possible."
He said all the parties should participate in achieving a final peace and called on the civil societies in Darfur to be involved and play a due role in the peace talks.
After the opening remarks, the meeting turned to a close-door session. Amin Hassan Omar heads the Sudanese government delegation and the LJM was led by Tijani El-Sissi during the talks.
A statement is expected to be hammered out after the meeting.
Devastating fighting in the western Sudanese region since 2003 between ethnic rebels and the government forces have left around 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million others displaced, according to the United Nations.
The venues of peace talks have been shifted from Libya to Chad in the past years. Power-sharing and the swap of prisoners were the key issues in these hard negotiations.
The current mediator Qatar has hosted several rounds of negotiations between Khartoum and rebel factions and remarkable headway has been made since the beginning of this year. However, sporadic fighting between the government and the rebels and accusations had marred that process.