KHARTOUM - Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said Saturday it was ready to sign a temporary ceasefire with Sudan's government, saying a "framework agreement" on the terms of future peace talks could be imminent. JEM, thought to control Darfur's most powerful insurgent force, said the deal would be a step forward but would not mark the end of its struggle with Khartoum. "This is not the end of anything. This is just the start," spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam told Reuters from Chad's capital N'Djamena, where he said the insurgents had held talks with a Sudanese government delegation for the last three days. "This would just be a primary agreement, a set of guiding principles -- one short document to be used as a reference for all the detailed issues we will discuss later," he said. "We are ready to sign a temporary ceasefire when the terms of the framework agreement are agreed." Khartoum has agreed to a series of ceasefires during the seven-year conflict, but some have fallen apart days after their signing and distrust between the warring parties remains deep. Talks between JEM and Khartoum, hosted in Qatar, have been stalled for months. But there has been a flurry of activity between the two sides in recent days, some analysts say, against a background of thawing relations between Sudan and neighboring Chad. Sudan and Chad, both preparing for elections, agreed earlier this month to end their long-running proxy war, fought by arming rebels on each other's territory. Chadian President Idriss Deby shares ethnic links with JEM's leadership and many have accused him of backing JEM. No one in the government was immediately available for comment. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told supporters on Friday they should expect good news from Darfur soon and state media said a deal with JEM could be imminent. JEM and Darfur's rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) took up arms against the government in 2003, accusing Khartoum of leaving their western region marginalized and underdeveloped.
