The pope for his part voiced his “heartfelt hope” for the success of the peace talks next month, the Vatican said. Bashir raised the possibility of a ceasefire in Sudan’s western Darfur region after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. “We stated that we are prepared for a ceasefire for the start of negotiations in order to create a positive climate conducive to a positive end to the negotiations,” he told a press briefing. The Sudanese government and Darfur rebels who refused to sign a peace agreement are to hold talks in Tripoli from October 27.Bashir faces mounting international pressure over the conflict which has killed at least 200,000 people and displaced two million since Khartoum enlisted Janjaweed Arab militia allies to help put down an ethnic minority rebellion in 2003, according to UN figures. The Sudanese president said he asked Prodi to pressure “certain European countries harbouring some of these rebel groups” to persuade them to come to the talks. “We hope that the negotiations in Tripoli will be the last and that they will produce a definitive peace,” Bashir said, adding that he wanted an end to economic sanctions against his government and the cancellation of its foreign debt. Bashir’s meeting at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome was the first between a Sudanese president and a pope.
“Very positive views were expressed concerning fresh peace negotiations for Darfur,” the Vatican said following the 25-minute meeting. “It is the Holy See’s heartfelt hope that these negotiations prove successful in order to put an end to the suffering and insecurity of those peoples.” Bashir also met for half an hour with Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s equivalent of a foreign minister who formerly served as the papal nuncio to Khartoum.