KHARTOUM - Sudan's government and rebel groups will start talks on Oct. 27 in Libya to push for peace in violence-torn Darfur before 26,000 peacekeepers deploy there, the United Nations and Khartoum announced on Thursday.

The talks, to which some eight rebel groups are expected to be invited, will be mediated by U.N. and African Union special envoys, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference after a three-day visit to Sudan.

The choice of Libya as a venue came as a surprise as Tanzania had earlier been seen as the most likely venue. Ban and other U.N. officials said it reflected Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's role in trying to unify Darfur rebel groups.

A joint U.N.-Sudanese statement said the United Nations "expresses the hope that parties will cooperate fully" with U.N. and AU mediators Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim, and that Khartoum had pledged to participate "constructively".

Ban, who held talks with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and met leaders of Darfur refugees in Sudan, urged all parties to immediately cease fire in their four-year-old conflict in the western Sudanese region and attend the talks.

"This is going to be a crucially important negotiating forum for a durable peace in Sudan," he said.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and more than two million have been made homeless in Darfur since an uprising against alleged government neglect of the region flared in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.

In Washington, the United States welcomed the peace talks and said it was ready to support the effort.

"We're encouraged by the renewed efforts to obtain lasting peace in Sudan," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. "The U.N. with Ban Ki Moon's leadership and the African Union should be applauded for working to bring all sides to the negotiating table."


GADDAFI CAN DELIVER

The choice of Libya as venue for the talks marks another step in its re-emergence on the world stage after years in which it was ostracised by the West for alleged sponsorship of terrorism and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

U.N. officials said the idea to hold the talks there came up in talks between Ban and Bashir earlier this week, but they believed it had originally come from the African Union.

"The Libyan government has been playing a very constructive role" over Darfur, Ban said, and he and AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare were "of the same view that Tripoli could work as a good place." Other U.N. officials said it was unclear if the talks would be in the capital or elsewhere in Libya.

"The idea is that maybe Gaddafi can deliver more movements," said a senior U.N. official who asked not to be named, referring to Darfur's splintered rebel movements.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol told the news conference at least six countries had offered to host the talks, all of them acceptable to Sudan. "We have no problems with the choice," he said.

One key Darfur rebel, Sudan Liberation Movement founder Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, has already said he will not take part in fresh talks until the promised U.N.-AU peacekeeping force is in place.

Some U.N. officials said they believed Nur might still attend but he reiterated his stand on Thursday in a statement to Reuters. "Our principles are very clear. We want security for our people first," he said.

Ban said: "I would strongly urge him to participate."

Another rebel leader, Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement, branded as "arrogant" on Thursday Khartoum's new Darfur negotiator and said it would make talks difficult.

A 2006 peace deal between Khartoum and one rebel faction failed to quell the violence in Darfur. In July, the U.N. Security Council approved a plan for 26,000 troops and police to take over from a small and overwhelmed AU force currently operating in Darfur.

Ban has said that the U.N.-AU force cannot be effective unless "there is a peace to keep."