Sudan's vice president and the country's main rebel leader signed a comprehensive peace agreement to end Africa's longest-running conflict Sunday, concluding an eight-year process to stop the civil war. In a lavish ceremony in neighboring Kenya _ where the talks were based _ Sudanese vice president Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and John Garang, chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, signed the peace agreement. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed as witnesses. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini and Norwegian Development Minister Hilda Johnsonn then signed as witnesses, representing donors who've backed the peace negotiations. Kenya has hosted the talks since they began in earnest in 1997 and Museveni is the current chairman of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional grouping that has mediated the talks. Nine other African leaders attended the ceremony, including Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and African Union Chairman and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa was also present. During the last two years of talks, the adversaries have signed protocols on how to share power and natural wealth, what to do with their armed forces during a six-year transition period and how to administer three disputed areas in central Sudan. They also agreed that after the six-year transition, southerners would vote in a referendum on whether to remain united with the north, or to become independent. U.N. officials have said the Security Council will review the peace agreement within two weeks, after which the council will adopt a resolution establishing a peace support mission for Sudan.
