A deal to end Sudan's southern war that is due to be signed on Sunday must boost efforts to solve Darfur's "terrible conflict", US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Saturday. The continent's largest country could count on Washington for support as former foes start to implement a complex north-south peace pact to end Africa's longest-running civil war, Powell said.
"We also hope that this success can be translated ... to bring us a solution to the difficult challenge in the Darfur region," Powell told a news conference.
"We can't overlook that while we are celebrating tomorrow the achievement in North-South dialogue (we will be thinking about) the difficult, terrible conflict in Darfur."
"Let us hope that this is the beginning of a more comprehensive process that would include the Darfur region and also deal with violence that has occurred in the east as well."
Powell was flanked by southern rebel leader John Garang and his main negotiating partner, Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, who will sign the comprehensive peace agreement on Sunday in front of African heads of state.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday fighting in Darfur was escalating and the region could face new violence despite efforts by the UN Security Council and others.
The only bulwark against a wider war appears to be the African Union, which has promised more than 3,000 troops and monitors but has not been able to put more than a third of them in the field and needs outside help, Annan said.
The southern civil war began in 1983 and broadly pits the Islamist government based in Khartoum against the mainly Christian and animist south. The fighting has killed some 2 million people and forced millions more to flee their homes.
Oil, ethnicity and ideology have complicated the conflict.
Diplomats say a north-south deal may be a model for Darfur, where the crisis has uprooted more than 1.6 million Darfuris.