ABUJA, Jan. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in the western Darfur region will resume in the Nigerian capital Abuja in the middle of February, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told reporters Monday.

    Obasanjo, also the chairman of the 53-member African Union (AU), made the announcement in Abuja at the end of the two-day, twice-yearly AU summit that ended Monday afternoon.

    "The AU leaders reviewed the situation in Darfur, especially the progress of the efforts toward ending the crisis and decided that the talks should resume in Abuja middle of February," he said.

    Earlier, Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail also said the talks were due to reopen in Nigeria in February but did not elaborate.

    Under the auspices of the AU, the Sudanese government and rebels, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement, had held several rounds of peace talks in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and Abuja without major breakthrough.

    Darfur has been embroiled in fighting since February 2003 when the rebels took up arms against Khartoum. The conflict has so far caused thousands of deaths and sent over one million fleeing to neighboring Chad or internally displaced.

    The United Sates wanted the United Nations to call the violencein Darfur "genocide," but Ismail, who is in Abuja for the summit, said a UN report on the situation in the region, which was expected to release this week, did not contain the word.

    "We have seen the report and they did not say there is a genocide" in Darfur, he noted.

    And Monday, Obasanjo said the leaders empowered him to form a committee to make recommendations on Darfur.

    "I realized that I must be constantly on top of the situation in Darfur and I am happy that the heads of states agreed with me in that regard," he stated. Enditem