Chances of a peace agreement for Sudan's Darfur region looked slim on Monday despite a 48-hour extension to negotiations, observers said, citing rebel inflexibility.
Mediators from the African Union (AU) agreed in the early hours after a deadline expired to give the government of Sudan and two rebel groups until midnight Tuesday to agree on a proposed peace plan, the result of two years of talks.
But on Monday morning, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha left the Nigerian capital Abuja, venue of the talks. Taha had arrived three weeks ago and held face-to-face meetings with rebel leaders that had raised hopes of a deal.
A diplomat who is closely involved in the talks said Taha left because his latest meetings with rebel leaders had given him the impression they were not open to substantial talks.
"His meetings with the (rebel) movements yesterday were so bad. They were, frankly, so insulting to the government," said the diplomat, who described his mood as "depressed".
The rebels have major objections on issues related to security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing, the three areas covered by the AU's proposed peace agreement.
AU mediators say the rebels insist certain demands, such as a vice president's post for a Darfurian and a new regional government, should be met in full which is just not possible.
"I think the chances are very slender. ... I don't think the movements realise they've missed their big chance. ... The only thing left is for Minni to realise that the game is up," said the diplomatic source.
He was referring to Minni Arcua Minnawi, leader of the main faction of the divided Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group.
Getting Minnawi's faction on board is considered key to any agreement because he has most forces on the ground. The leader of the other SLA faction, Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, is isolated, while diplomats say the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has been the most inflexible of all.
The rebels took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed Darfur, an arid region the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.
Khartoum used militias, known locally as Janjaweed and drawn from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people while a campaign of arson, looting and rape has driven more than 2 million from their homes into refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
All sides have continued fighting despite a 2004 cease-fire, according to the AU which has 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur. Aid groups say the violence prevents them from delivering food and medicine to tens of thousands of refugees.
Observers say the rebels have squandered enormous international sympathy while the government, widely portrayed as the villain in the Darfur conflict, has played its diplomatic cards just right.