NAIROBI, Jan. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- US Secretary of State Colin Powell has urged all sides to redouble the efforts to end fighting in Sudan's Darfur region as peace will finally come to southern Sudanafter the signing of a comprehensive Sudanese peace deal on Sunday.

    "Tomorrow I will witness the signing of the document which gives basis for solving problem in Darfur. And I think this gives us basis now to redouble our efforts to solve the problem in Darfur," Powell said at a news conference in Nairobi on Saturday.

    Sunday's signing marks "an end to war, but just the beginning of peace," said Powell, adding that "we hope the peace agreement will be an incentive to bring violence to an end in Darfur."

    Powell implied that the US and the United Nations might step uppressure to end the Darfur crisis. "The UN still has options before it, including sanctions, and we do not take any of those options off the table," he said.

    Powell, who arrived here Friday for a two-day visit to witness Sunday's signing, held the press conference jointly with Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and John Garang, leader of the southern rebels of Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

    Taha and Garang both thanked the United States for its help in the Sudan peace process, saying the peace deal to be signed on Sunday is a major breakthrough although it once seemed to be a mission impossible.

    They also pledged their willingness to bring peace and stability to all parts of Sudan. "We will bring peace to other parts of Sudan. We pledge our commitment to peace," said Garang.

    "We will join hands in trying to resolve the Darfur crisis so that we finally have a national comprehensive peace in all parts of the country. We know those challenges are difficult, but it seems not impossible to surmount," Taha said.

    The peace pact to be signed on Sunday does not cover the conflict in Sudan's western province of Darfur, where more than one million people are internally displaced and another 200,000 have fled across the border as refugees in neighboring Chad.

    Powell came to Kenya after completing a tour of tsunami-ravagedcountries in Asia and attending the one-day tsunami crisis summit in Indonesian capital Jakarta..

    The Sudanese government and the SPLM/A will sign a comprehensive peace accord Sunday in Nairobi to end the 21-year-old civil war in southern Sudan, the longest-running civil war in Africa.

    Powell has invested considerable time and effort in the search for peace in Sudan. The visit to Kenya will probably be among his last foreign trips before stepping down as secretary of state later this month. Enditem