By Guillaume Lavallee
Khartoum - The six-year Darfur conflict is almost over, Sudan's new point man for the thorny dossier said on Thursday, inviting a key rebel leader exiled in France to seize an "historic opportunity" for peace.
"The way I see the conflict, I see that it is in its final stages, I see peace coming. It's not exactly and strictly around the corner but I can see it," presidential adviser Ghazi Salaheddin told reporters in an interview.
The United Nations says up to 300 000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003.
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Sudan says 10 000 have been killed.
The region is also rife with deadly clashes between tribes disputing sparse natural resources such as grazing land and water, and bandits who roam the desert highways of this vast area that is home to eight million people.
Preliminary peace talks, the latest in a series of previously failed efforts to end the conflict, are taking place in Doha between the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the best-equipped group, and the Sudan government.
"Hopefully, if the negotiations focus now on the political framework and also on the ceasefire agreement, that would allow us to make some progress," towards peace, Salaheddin said.
But the JEM rebels prefer the talks to focus on a prisoner exchange, with more than 100 of its fighters so far sentenced to death for an unprecedented attack on Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman in 2008.
The head of the Sudan Liberation Army, Abdelwahid Mohammed Nur, also a member of Darfur's main ethnic group the Fur, has so far refused to leave his exile in Paris to take part in peace talks, seeking major concessions such as guarantees on his future government role first.
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