East African mediators are working round the clock to bring Khartoum and southern rebels back to the negotiating table just days after talks collapsed, government and media sources said yesterday.

"The IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) secretariat is still exerting strenuous efforts to bring the viewpoints of the government and (rebel) movement closer," presidential peace advisor Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani was quoted as saying by Sudan's official daily Al Anbaa.

The official was speaking after returning to the capital late Tuesday from deadlocked talks in Naeuki, Kenya, where he headed the government team negotiating with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

East African IGAD mediators postponed talks indefinitely Monday night, after a week of deadlock in which the two sides failed to agree on an agenda for negotiations.

But chief Kenyan mediator, Lazaro Sumbeiywo, spent Tuesday locked in separate contacts with the two parties, battling to close the gap between their positions, the independent Al Sahafa daily said.

General Sumbeiywo was to continue separate meetings with both sides yesterday and today, before bringing them together for joint consultations tomorrow and Saturday, the newspaper reported, quoting sources in Naneuki.

The government and the SPLA struck a breakthrough accord in July 2002 granting the south the right to self-determination after a six-year transition period and exempting it from Islamic law.

The previous round of talks broke down last month when Khartoum rejected a draft accord on power- and wealth-sharing and security arrangements.

US Africa expert John Prendergast has warned that Washington could slap sanctions on the government and cut its ties with the SPLA if the talks failed.

Sudan's civil war between the Arab Muslim north and the mainly Christian and animist south has claimed at least 1,5-million lives and displaced four million people. – Sapa-AFP.