The Sudanese government has withdrawn its permission for a Ugandan army offensive against Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in south Sudan. The charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, Muhammad Ahmed Dirdeiry, confirmed to IRIN on Wednesday that the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) would not be allowed to continue its 'Operation Iron Fist' against LRA targets on Sudanese territory. "They have been given enough time to do this job," he said.

Eritrea on Monday again denied involvement in the fighting in eastern Sudan, saying the Sudanese government was making such accusations as a "pretext" to scuttle ongoing peace negotiations with Sudanese rebels.

A settlement to the 19-year-old war between the predominantly Arab and Islamist government in Khartoum and the mostly African, non-Islamist rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is unlikely to be achieved any time soon unless the United States and Europe exert much stronger pressure urgently, according to a new report by an international think tank that specializes in conflict resolution. In particular, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) is calling on the U.S. Congress to enact the long-pending Sudan Peace Act (SPA) that includes penalties against foreign oil companies--currently from Canada, western Europe, China, and Malaysia--that invest in Sudan's booming but increasingly bloody oil sector.

The Sudanese government has said it will send a letter to US President George W. Bush to clarify its position after his call last Thursday, 20 June, on Khartoum to demonstrate more serious commitment to ending the Sudanese civil war. Minister for External Relations Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said the government welcomed without reservations Bush's call for an end to the war, but was displeased that he had not touched on the need for the other warring party - the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) - to do the same.

On 16 January 2002, a Sudanese court ordered the editor of the English language newspaper "Khartoum Monitor" to pay a five million Sudanese pound (approx. U$1,950) fine over an article published in the paper that accused the government of facilitating slavery.

On Thursday October 11th Ms. Omaima Al Mardi, Director of the Gender Centre went to work as usual, to find out that the office has been occupied by security agents who ordered her to close the Centre and leave immediately.

The Sudanese government has criticised the US-led air strikes against targets in Afghanistan, news agencies reported on Monday.

The Sudanese government has warned that it could pull out of the peace negotiations sponsored by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) if progress is not made at the next round of talks, news agencies reported on Saturday.

Sudan has taken steps to crack down on members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network still in the country, United Press International (UPI) reported on Friday.

The Sudanese government on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, news agencies reported.

The government of Sudan has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan requesting that the international community, and the United Nations in particular, condemn "the ongoing aggression by the rebel movement (Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army) against the Sudanese people in general, and the people in the south in particular."

The government of Sudan on Wednesday announced that it had fully accepted all the points of a joint Libyan-Egyptian memorandum, which has not been made public, on their peace initiative for Sudan. At a press conference in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il urged the two countries to take all the necessary measures to implement the initiative, Sudanese television reported.