KHARTOUM, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) was inaugurated in Khartoum on Monday, marking a significant step of implementing a peace deal signed last year to solve the Darfur issue.

    In the meantime, Majzoub al-Khalifa, an adviser of Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, told the Sudanese parliament Monday that the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) had entered "an advanced stage."

    Al-Khalifa, who used to be the head of the government delegation conducting the peace talks in the Nigerian capital of Abuja before the peace deal was signed, expected the negotiations would restart soon between the government and some rebel movements.

    He said that many steps had been taken for the implementation of the DPA, including the affiliation of signatories of the peace agreement to the central government in Khartoum and local governments in Darfur.

    Mini Arkou Minawi, head of the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), described Monday's inauguration of the TDRA as "the real beginning of the implementation of the DPA."

    After signing the DPA with the government in Abuja on May 5, 2006, Minawi was appointed by the Sudanese president in August as his senior assistant, the number-four in the government alignment only after the president and two vice presidents, and the chairman of the TDRA.

    He announced that the TDRA began to carry out its political, security, economic and humanitarian duties, adding that it was to exert efforts to rebuild and rehabilitate the Darfur region, realize a comprehensive development and provide basic services for local residents.

    Following the inauguration ceremony, the TDRA held its first meeting to discuss its next steps to enhance the implementation of the DPA and to improve the general situation in Darfur.

    Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit paid a brief visit Monday in Khartoum, during which he delivered a message to the Sudanese president from his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on the bilateral relations and latest developments in Darfur.

    Abul Gheit stressed his country's support for the efforts exerted by the Sudanese government to end the crisis in Darfur.

    He said that Egypt had noticed in the recent period "an active respond" of Khartoum to international demands after it had accepted the light and heavy support packages from the UN to the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur.

    "We encourage this development and help Sudan overcome this crisis," the Egyptian foreign minister said.

    The Sudanese government announced on April 16 its acceptance of the heavy support package from the UN for the AU force in Darfur, according to which 3,000 additional soldiers and policemen and six attack helicopters will be sent by the UN to the region.

    The heavy support package is the second phase of a three-phase UN plan regarding the deployment of a UN-AU hybrid force in the war-torn region.

    During the undergoing first phase, the light support package, including 105 officers, 33 police advisers and 48 civilian officials, is being delivered to reinforce the 7,800-strong AU force.

    Abul Gheit said that his visit to Khartoum was aimed at coordinating positions with Sudan in order to boost the peace process and to reunite the positions of the armed groups in Darfur preparing for a multipartite meeting to be held in the Libya capital of Tripoli next week.

    The meeting is to be attended by ministers from Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea and officials and representatives of the United States, the UN, the AU and the European Union.

    The visit of Abul Ghait, who was accompanied by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, came as Eritrean President Issayas Aferwerki was winding up a three-day official visit in Sudan, where he held a meeting with the Sudanese president and paid a tour to southern Sudan.

    Eritrea, which successfully sponsored the peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the rebel groups in eastern Sudan last year, has played a mediation role between Khartoum and the Darfur rebel movements.

    Some one million civilians have been displaced and a number of civilians have been killed since tribal clashes and anti-government rebellion erupted in February 2003.

    The Sudanese government is currently under mounting pressures from the United States and some other western countries for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

    On Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the Security Council to allow more time for diplomacy before considering whether to impose further economic and military sanctions on Sudan over the situation in Darfur.

    The Sudanese government has asked the international society to exert more pressures on the rebel movements which had not signed the DPA to go back to the negotiation table.

    "Despite the efforts of pushing the non-signatories to join the peace process, the rebel movements have not taken any positive action toward the peace," al-Khalifa said.

    He said that the tribal clash was one of the major threats for the peace, denying any infringement had been committed by the government and the signatories of the DPA in Darfur.