NDJAMENA (AFP) - The parties to the conflict in Darfur in western Sudan and African mediators have begun informal peace talks in Libya, a diplomatic source in the Chadian capital Ndjamena said yesterday.

"A reconciliation meeting has been in progress since yesterday evening at Syrta in Libya between the two (Darfur) rebel movements, the Sudanese government, the African Union and the Chadian foreign minister," the Chadian diplomatic source told AFP.

Foreign Minister Nagoum Yamassoum is chairing Chad's efforts to mediate in the conflict in Darfur, in neighbouring Sudan, which the United Nations says has left between 30,000 and 50,000 people dead.

Libya has offered to host a conference aimed at ending the crisis in Darfur open to all the parties involved, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgham told an Egyptian daily yesterday.

In an interview with Al-Ahram, Shalgham said he had the chairman of the AU's executive commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, "to propose that Libya host a widened conference with the parties involved in Darfur".

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on July 30 giving the Sudanese regime 30 days to crack down on pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias, who have been accused of committing war crimes against Darfur's ethnic black Africans.

The fear factor

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS