TRIPOLI - The U.N. Secretary-General said on Sunday he was encouraged by the "credible progress" he felt had been made towards peace in Darfur during an Africa tour, but it was too early to talk of tangible results. Ban Ki-moon said the challenge now was to persuade all Darfur's rebel groups to attend talks with the Sudanese government next month, he told international news agencies in an interview at the end of his trip to Sudan, Chad and Libya.
He called upon key regional countries to help produce a "road map" on the way ahead in the seven-week run-up to peace talks, to which Khartoum agreed in a statement issued during Ban's visit on Thursday.
The talks are scheduled to start on Oct. 27 at a venue in Libya, yet to be decided.
"I think we have made a lot of credible progress at this time towards the path to peace and security in Darfur," Ban said. "I am encouraged by this progress."
"But we must build upon this progress," Ban said.
"It is too early to say that we have made some good achievement."
In his eight and a half months in office, Ban has made solving the Darfur crisis a top priority.
International experts estimate that some 200,000 people have died and over 2 million have been made homeless since a rebellion broke out in the west Sudanese region in 2003.
Much of the killing, rape and looting has been blamed on a government-allied militia known as the Janjaweed.
Sudan denies the charges and says only 9,000 have died as a result of the uprising.
