Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has promised to work for a peace deal that ensures broad participation in decision-taking and power-sharing in talks with the Sudanese rebels in southern Sudan. The president was speaking at a rally marking the country's 47th Independence day in the Southern city of Malakal on Wednesday, Jan 1, 2003. . Al-Bashir urged all factions in the Sudan to work harder for peace in a country torn for decades by civil war adding that peace for all people in the Sudan must take precedence over all personal, regional or factional gains.

In his speech, the Sudanese president condoned the efforts of the Arab League in boosting the search for peace in his country adding that the Arab League's Ministerial Committee on Sudan is to convene on the 14th of January, 2003.

The president's speech struck a conciliatory note in comparison to remarks published on Sunday in which he said that "peace will come by the gun if it cannot come by dialogue" amid a "jihad," or holy struggle.

Rebels Report Big Government Attack

Sudanese rebels meanwhile said on Wednesday government forces had launched a large-scale attack with tanks and helicopters on rebel-held positions in oil-producing areas and had also bombed civilians.

"The regime's forces have carried out its leader's pledge and launched a wide-ranging attack on our positions in the oil-producing areas. The fighting has continued from yesterday to now," the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Cairo.

The rebels said the attack against SPLA positions in the town of Tam and the area around the town of Renk, about 260 miles south of the capital Khartoum, was a serious violation of a cease-fire agreed by both sides.

Helicopters bombed civilians in Leir and burned outlying villages, pillaging belongings and cattle, the statement added. Some 1,500 government soldiers launched the attack on Tam, it said.

The SPLM said its forces fought back, killed dozens of government soldiers and captured another 125. It gave no details of casualties on its side or of any impact on oil operations.

No independent verification was immediately available and government officials could not be reached for comment.

An estimated two million people have died in Sudan's civil war, which began in 1983. It pits the government in the mainly Muslim north against rebels from the mainly animist south and is complicated by issues of ethnicity and oil.

The government held two rounds of talks last year with the southern-based SPLA in a bid to end the conflict.

The two sides have agreed on several key issues, including a cease-fire, but not on a full peace accord. Negotiators have agreed on the issues of religion and self-determination but not yet on how to share power and divide the country's wealth.

The SPLM statement said the attack, following the regime's sabre-rattling at the weekend, had negative implications for the peace process ahead of the next round of talks due to restart on January 6 in neighboring Kenya.

PHOTO CAPTION

Sudanese president, Omar Al-Bashir addressing a rally marking the 47th Independence day in the Southern Sudanese city of Malakal, Jan 1, 2003.