HIGHLIGHTS:Work on Economic & Social Development Comes After Peace is Achieved: Annan||Ismail Describes Visit as 'Important'||Garang Wants Annan to Visit South|| STORY: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he expects a peace deal to be struck between the government and rebels in Sudan before July 20."I expect an agreement will be reached for ending the war before July 20," said Annan, concerning the 19-year conflict pitting Muslim and Arab governments in Khartoum against Christian and animist guerrillas in the south of the country.(Read photo caption)

"Peace is coming soon," the United Nations chief told reporters in the Sudanese capital on the second day of a three-day visit.

Annan was referring to the current round of peace talks in Kenya, since June 17, between the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army and the government of President Omar al-Beshir.

Those peace efforts are being sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) of east African states and backed by the United States.

"After peace is achieved, we will all work for the economic and social development of this country," Annan said.

Annan, who toured a refugee camp about 40 kilometres (30 miles) south of the capital earlier Thursday, was addressing reporters after talks with Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail.

"We have discussed humanitarian assistance and the obstacles facing it," said Annan about his session with Ismail.

However, he refused to identify the specific hurdles to delivering aid to central and southern Sudan, the main battlefield in the civil war.

Annan, who won last year's Nobel peace prize winner for the UN, vowed to resolve the snags before his departure Friday.

The UN-sponsored Operation Lifeline-Sudan (OLS) is the largest humanitarian relief programme in the world, bringing aid to six million people, one-fifth of the country's population.

For his part, Ismail described Annan's visit as "important".

"We have discussed the peace process and arrangements for an unhindered flow of the humanitarian assistance to all needy people," said the foreign minister.

Annan's two-hour visit to the Dar Es-Salam refugee camp Thursday highlighted the war's heavy toll for the civilian population.

For its part, the SPLA called on Annan Thursday to visit its southern strongholds and see for himself the human devastation wrought by civil war.

The group led by John Garang charges the Sudanese government with barring international relief groups from access to areas under its control.

On Wednesday, Annan met Sudan's First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and representatives of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations.

He was scheduled to have dinner Thursday with Beshir.

More than one million people have been killed and four million displaced since Sudan's civil war erupted in 1983.

PHOTO CAPTION

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, left, speaks upon his arrival for his first visit to Sudan at Khartoum airport Wednesday July 10, 2002, as Sudan's Minister for International Cooperation Karam Eddin Abdoul Moula, right, looks on. Annan arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday on the first official visit by a U.N. chief to the war-torn nation, Africa's largest, since 1974. (AP Photo/Abdel Raouf )
- Jul 10 3:10 PM ET