ROME - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Friday his government was willing to observe a ceasefire in Darfur from the start of peace talks next month.

"We have given our government's willingness for a ceasefire from the start of the peace talks," he said, speaking through a translator at a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

Peace talks are due to start on Oct. 27 in Libya between Khartoum and rebel groups to end more than four years of violence in Darfur that international experts estimate has killed 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million. Khartoum disputes the figures.

A ceasefire was agreed in April 2004 but has been violated frequently, with fighting blamed on government troops, rebels and Janjaweed militias.

Prodi welcomed Bashir's statement as a strong and important signal.

He said he had expressed the "serious concerns" of the Italian government and European countries over the Darfur crisis to the Sudanese President, who was due to meet Pope Benedict later on Friday.