The Sudanese government is preparing to celebrate the signing of a final peace agreement with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said on Monday.  

Speaking to reporters, Ismail said, "All Sudanese diplomatic missions are actively working to attract the greatest gathering for this occasion which will be held in Nairobi on January 9." Ismail stressed that the celebration would witness a large and high-powered participation at the level of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union.

He pointed out that Nigerian President and current AU President Olusegun Obasanjo and South African President Thabo Mbeki as well as leaders of a number of Arab and non-Arab countries are expected to participate in the ceremony.

He said that the celebration would be held in coordination with the IGAD's Secretariat and the Kenyan Foreign Ministry.

He said that he would travel to Uganda on Tuesday to convey a message from Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on the latest developments of the Sudanese peace process.

Last Friday, the Sudanese government and the SPLM signed an agreement on permanent ceasefire and the implementation modalities of the final peace deal in neighboring Kenya.

The Sudanese civil war started in 1983 when the SPLM took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country, which has left some two million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and disease.

The Sudanese government and the SPLM began peace talks in March 1994, and signed key peace protocols in May last year, paving the way for a full ceasefire and implementation pact to end the war stretching over two decades.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2005)