ReliefWeb

KHARTOUM, March 29 (Reuters) - Sudan's government and southern rebels plan to resume talks on Monday aimed at ending the 17-year-old civil war in Africa's biggest country.

The official Sudan News Agency reported on Wednesday that a government delegation led by presidential adviser Nafie Ali Nafie would meet representatives of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in Nairobi on Monday.

The meeting is the latest in several rounds of largely fruitless peace talks that have taken place under the auspices of a regional African grouping known as IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development).

A five-man IGAD delegation, led by Daniel Mboya, Kenya's special envoy to Sudan, ended a visit to Khartoum earlier on Wednesday after what Nafie described as successful talks.

More than 1.5 million Sudanese have died since 1983 from violence, famine and other causes in the war that, in broad terms, pits the Moslem, Arabic-speaking north against the black African south, whose people are mostly Christian or animist.

Egypt and Libya launched their own peace initiative last year. Officials from the two countries are expected to meet IGAD representatives in Cairo next week on the sidelines of an African-European summit to explore possible coordination.