DAKAR (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby signed a peace agreement on Thursday meant to end cross-border rebel attacks in a region which includes Sudan's war-torn Darfur.
The signing, witnessed by U.N. Secretary-General BanKi-moon and Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, followed talksin Dakar meant to revive a string of bilateral pacts that havefailed to end fighting on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border.
"We decide solemnly before our peers and representatives ofthe international community to reconcile our two countries, tonormalise our relations and to give ourselves the means tocontribute to the peace and stability of our two nations and ofthe region," a copy of the agreement seen by Reuters said.
The two countries agreed to the formation of a "contactgroup" made of foreign ministers from a handful of Africanstates which would meet monthly to ensure the deal -- known asthe Dakar agreement -- was implemented in good faith.
Foreign diplomats say Chadian rebels have regularly usedthe Darfur frontier region as a base from which to launchincursions into Chad. Sudan has in turn repeatedly accusedChad's government of backing Darfuri rebel groups.
Wade, who has sought a mediation role in several Africanconflicts, drafted the accord signed by Deby and Bashir in thehope it could help end the hostility.
Senegal is currently hosting a two-day summit of the57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), adiverse body grouping a quarter of the world's populationspread across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
(Reporting by Alistair Thomson and Lamine Ghanmi; Writingby Nick Tattersall; editing by Sami Aboudi)
