KHARTOUM, Jan. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Sudan accepted a compromise Tuesday to postpone its taking over of the African Union, ceding the post temporarily to the Republic of the Congo and ending a fracas that has tangled the ongoing 6th AU summit.

    A special seven-president committee for the AU chairmanship issue Tuesday decided that Sudan would take over the leadership ofthe 53-nation regional bloc in 2007.

    The President of the Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou-Nguessou, was selected the AU chairman for the session of the year 2006, AU spokeswoman Habiba Sheikh said.

    Sassou-Nguessou has replaced Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to preside over the proceedings of the summit, Sheikh said.

    Sudan's Minister of Information and Communication al Zahawi Ibrahim Malik Tuesday said that Sudan fully accepted the decision,adding that it was a major achievement of the summit.

    The committee also decided that Sudan shall be the first deputy chairman for the year 2006, with a term of one year.

    Sudan's efforts to obtain the post suffered an obvious setback when the selecting of the AU chairmanship reached an impasse Monday evening as African leaders convened at a closed-door session of the summit.

    Sudan was ambitious to win the post since the AU tradition allows the host country of the summit to automatically take over the chairmanship until the next session. But neighboring Chad, which in the past month involved in border clashes with Sudan, hasopenly opposed the bid.

    Chad has accused Sudan of sheltering and backing Chadian rebelsin its violent Darfur region and the dispute is adding to insecurity in the whole area. Khartoum denies backing Chadian rebels but the dispute has cast a shadow over its preparations to host the AU summit, which Chad said should be held elsewhere.

    DARFUR REMAINS MAJOR CHALLENGE

    Sudan's two main rebel groups fighting in the western Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, were also opposing Sudan as the host of the meeting, and had reportedly threatened to walk out of AU-sponsoredpeace talks, currently being held in Abuja, Nigeria, if African leaders elect the country's President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir to the AU presidency.

    The Darfur conflict, which pits the two rebel groups against the Sudanese government since 2003, has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, sending more than 200,000 fleeing to neighboring Chad.

    The groups argued that Khartoum "cannot be both the judge and aparty of the conflict," adding that awarding the chairmanship to al-Bashir would damage the AU's credibility as it is making efforts to solve regional conflicts.

    Meanwhile Malik said that Nigeria will continue its role as the host for the peace talks on Darfur, although it has passed the AU presidency to Congo. He said Sudan fully trusts in President Olusegun Obasanjo's role as the chief mediator.

    The latest seventh round of peace talks in Abuja early this month over power-sharing arrangements were deadlocked, impeding the search for an overall peace deal to end three years of bloodshed.

    Obasanjo Monday in the opening ceremony of the summit said that the situation in the Darfur region remains a matter of deep concern, despite achievements in peace and security in other parts of the continent.

    He stressed that the resolution of the Darfur crisis is "critical to the peace and stability of Sudan and the entire region," while calling on negotiating parties in the ongoing inter-Sudanese talks to try to "come up with solutions that will help restore peace to the region so that its people can return to a life of normality."

    The AU, which has more than 6,000 troops in Darfur, is considering the need for a transfer to a UN peacekeeping force, due to limited mandate and scarce funds in the mission.

    Ministers from countries represented on the AU Peace and Security Council will meet before the end of March this year to review the situation in Darfur and make a final decision on the transition to a UN operation, according to an early statement fromthe UN. Enditem