NAIROBI, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The Sudanese government and main southern rebels are scheduled to sign a final comprehensive peace accord in Nairobi on Sunday to end the 21-year-old civil war in southern Sudan, the longest-running in Africa.

    The signing ceremony of the peace deal is to be held at the Nyayo Stadium in the Kenyan capital, starting at 9:00 a.m. (0600 GMT), according to Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua.

    He said at least 15 heads of states and governments are expected to attend the historic event, ending the two decades of conflict that has claimed two million lives, primarily from war-induced famine and disease, and displaced over four million others.

    The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in May 2004 signed six protocols on key issues relating to the peace process, including power sharing arrangements and the administration of three contested areas during a six-year interim period.

    The final two chapters of the peace deal were signed on December 31, paving the way for the final comprehensive accord.

    This peace pact is expected to cover all the eight peace deals signed previously, including earlier agreed protocols on how to share power and natural wealth, what to do with armed forces during a six-year transition period, how to administer the three disputed areas, and the latest on permanent ceasefire and modalities of implementing peace deals.

    Many world leaders and heads of state came to witness the historic signing ceremony. Among the present are Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Muammar al-Ghaddafi of Libya, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya as well as US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

    The Sudanese civil war broke out in 1983 when the SPLM/A took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country. It is estimated that two decades of conflict have claimed 2 million lives, primarily from war-induced famine and disease, and displaced over 4 million others.

    Oil, ethnicity and ideology have complicated the conflict.

    Diplomats say a north-south deal may be a model for a separate conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, where the crisis has uprooted more than 1.6 million Darfuris and 70,000 people have died in fighting and war-related disease.

    The agreement is expected to trigger the return of more than half a million Sudanese who fled into neighboring countries and the gradual resettlement of four million people displaced inside Sudan by the conflict. Enditem