Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell appealed to Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir to rein in militias that he said were responsible for a humanitarian crisis in western Sudan. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, appearing later with Powell in Khartoum, the capital, said there might be some humanitarian problems in Darfur province but insisted that "there is no famine, no malnutrition and no disease."

Sudan pledged to disarm Arab militias that have driven more than 1 million Africans from their homes in the Darfur region and to accept human rights monitors in the remote western area. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan secured the promise at talks in Khartoum with President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir and other Sudanese leaders. The United States had raised the possibility of sanctions against Sudan if the government did not stop the militia attacks.

Former President Jimmy Carter has returned to Sudan to try to secure an extension of a cease-fire, set to end July 28, that he negotiated in March. The official Sudan News Agency said Carter was met in Khartoum by Sudanese Health Minister Gatlouk Deng. Carter negotiated a cease-fire four months ago between the government of President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir has threatened to bar foreign relief planes from delivering humanitarian aid to the country's war-torn south, saying the relief effort involving U.N. and volunteer agencies is helping rebels battling government troops. A spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program said that the group had not been officially notified of the announcement and that flights were operating as normal.

Signaling an end to five years of acrimony, the leaders of Uganda and Sudan took steps to restore diplomatic ties and promised to halt support for rebel groups in each other's countries. Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, signed a pact in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after talks mediated by former President Carter.

The president will meet a British delegation to discuss a possible pardon for a teacher imprisoned in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, a presidential spokesman said. Two Muslim members of the British Parliament, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Nazir Ahmed, have been in Sudan for two days trying to set up a meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir.

Ugandan rebels pulled out of peace talks with the government, saying they were no longer welcome by Sudan, the host of the talks. The Lord's Resistance Army rebels maintained that their security was threatened after Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir said Tuesday that the only solution to the problem of the Ugandan rebels was a military one. A rebel spokesman said the rebels would abide by an August cease-fire but wanted the peace talks moved to Kenya or South Africa.

African leaders agreed to extend their military mission in Darfur after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan failed to persuade Sudan to allow in international peacekeepers. But Annan said he expected a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed eventually. Annan met Sudanese leader Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir on the fringes of an African Union summit in Gambia.

Sudan has agreed to allow an African Union-United Nations assessment mission into the country ahead of a possible deployment of U.N. troops to enforce a peace deal in the Darfur region, a U.N. envoy said. Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi spoke after meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir. The Sudanese government and the main rebel faction in Darfur signed a peace agreement May 5. Two other factions refused to sign.

Sudan's President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir said his government could resolve through dialogue the conflict in the nation's western region of Darfur. The United Nations says the region is the site of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. "The Sudanese people and their government are capable of reaching a solution to the problem in Darfur through constructive dialogue," Bashir told reporters in Khartoum, the capital. The U.N.