"So we are optimistic that in the next few weeks, we should expect a breakthrough as far as Darfur talks are concerned," Akol told journalists.

    He said that the two main rebel groups and the Sudanese government, which started a seventh round of talks in Abuja early this year, are closer on many issues on the negotiating table --including sharing power and oil wealth.

    Among the reasons for his guarded optimism was that after the peace deal between the north and south, Sudan's National Unity Government has included the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, creating a "different political climate."

    However, the possibility of independence -- envisioned in southern Sudan where a referendum on secession is due within six years of the peace deal -- was not for Darfur.

    Akol appealed to donors not to peg their assistance to the resolution of the Darfur conflict, lamenting that the southern Sudan has only received 30 percent of the pledges made during the Oslo donors' conference.

    "The international community should not ignore the southern conflict because of the conflict in Darfur. The donors also should not tie their assistance or the pledges they made in Oslo on the resolution of the conflict in Darfur," he said.

    "We are concerned about our people in Darfur and elsewhere. We are concerned about their welfare. We want to stop their suffering as soon as possible and that is why we are striving to see that this conflict is brought to a speedy end," Akol said. The minister said his country will reject the propose deployment of UN forces to Darfur even after the African Union¡¯s peacekeeping mandate expires in September.