A transport mix-up delayed the start of a new round of peace talks on Sudan's Darfur region on Thursday, as the African Union prepared to deploy thousands of new troops to monitor renewed fighting in the remote province.
Darfur rebels and African Union officials traded blame over who was responsible for failing to airlift rebel negotiators from Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia and Chad to the talks in the Nigerian capital, which analysts say have little chance of success.
A previous round collapsed last month without an agreement on Darfur, where fighting has driven 1.5 million people from their homes in what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Boubou Niang, political adviser to African Union (AU) special envoy for Darfur, said a formal opening ceremony would be held at 1500 GMT on Thursday, despite the absence of many top rebel figures.
The AU official said talks proper would probably be delayed to Friday or Saturday, but Sharif Harir, the chief negotiator for the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, political arm of the Sudan Liberation Army, said they might not start until Sunday.
"I think the rest of the delegation will be here by Sunday. It is a logistical problem. People have to come here from different parts of the world," Harir said on his arrival.
AFRICAN FORCE: The African Union's Peace and Security Council agreed on Wednesday to expand its force in the western Sudanese region, starting the deployment of more than 3,000 additional troops within the next two weeks.
The soldiers, who will join 150 cease-fire monitors and 300 AU troops already in Darfur, were essential to restoring security and creating confidence for people to return to their villages, according to Said Djinnit, the head of the AU council.
The force's main job would be to monitor a shaky cease-fire agreed in April but which Khartoum and the rebels have accused each other of violating.
"The situation in Darfur remains grave," Djinnit said in Addis Ababa. "The continued violations of the cease-fire, the attacks and other acts of violence against the civilian population have the potential to undermine the ongoing efforts to restore peace and stability to the region."
DRAWN-OUT TALKS: Analysts said both sides had an interest in dragging out the talks and that they were unlikely to reach a deal to resolve the crisis in Darfur, a region the size of France.
"The political will is just not there," John Prendergast, Africa programme director at the International Crisis Group think tank, told Reuters by telephone from New York.
The Darfur rebels were content to wait and see what concessions southern guerrillas would gain from the government in a deal expected to end a separate, two-decade-old conflict in the south of Sudan, Africa's largest country.
The government, which is under intense global pressure to end the crisis, sees the talks as proof it is seeking a negotiated settlement, but also has little incentive to yield ground, Prendergast said.
After years of skirmishes between Arab nomads and non-Arab farmers over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels took up arms early last year, accusing Khartoum of using Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages.
The Sudanese government admits arming some militias to fight the rebels, but denies any links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.
The United Nations estimates that 70,000 people have died from malnutrition and disease in the last seven months alone, a figure the Sudanese government disputes.
There are no reliable estimates of how many have been killed in the violence, which the United States has called genocide.
A UN official in Khartoum said on Wednesday there were reports of heavy bombardment in north Darfur.