Asmara, Eritrea - Sudanese opposition leaders began talks here on Wednesday afternoon as part of a long-running series of negotiations aimed at ending Africa's longest civil war.
The executive of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the main coalition of political groups in opposition to the Khartoum government, kicked off its meeting, which was attended by the organisation's president Muhammad Uthman al Mirghani and by John Garang, head of the SPLM/A (Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army).
The talks in the Eritrean capital Asmara are expected to last three days, according to NDA secretary general Pa'gan Amum.
"We are at a crossroad between ending the war and a transition to peace and democracy," he said.
The focus of the talks is on the role of the NDA in the peace process and political changes in Sudan.
The Khartoum government and the SPLM/A are in the final stages of peace talks in Kenya to end 21 years of civil strife that has left some 1.5 million people dead.
The rebellion in Darfur is not on the agenda of the ongoing peace talks between Khartoum and the SPLM/A.
"This agreement does not belong to the SPLM-SPLA alone, or to the south, it must include the NDA and all other sudanese political forces," Garang insisted at the outset of the talks here.
The warring parties are under intense pressure from the international community to resolve the conflict in the western region of Darfur, which erupted in February last year after rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against the government.
The rebels complained that their region was neglected by successive regimes in Khartoum.
An estimated 10 000 people have died in the Darfur conflict, exacerbated by a reign of terror unleashed by the pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias against the black Africans in the region.
Hundreds of others are at risk of dying from starvation and more than 100 000 refugees have crossed into neighboring Chad as a result of the conflict, according to humanitarian agencies in Darfur.
The main rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), and a new member of the NDA, is taking part in the Asmara talks for the first time.
The smaller Darfur rebel group, the Movement for Justice and Equality, has not joined the opposition grouping but is also attending.
The Sudanese government confirmed it would participate in African Union-sponsored negotiations with the two main rebel movements in the western region of Darfur due to open in the Ethiopian capital Thursday.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters Wednesday that no preconditions had been set for the talks.
NDA president al Mirghani called late Wednesday for "all the belligerents to appeal to reason and converge at the negotiating table to address the genesis of the crisis to find out solutions capable of securing stability, political collectivism and socio-economic development".