New Darfur mediator says mission not impossible

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur's new chief mediator Djibril Bassole made his first visit to Sudan on Sunday to begins the uphill task of reviving a stalled peace process.

"This will be a difficult mission but it's not mission impossible," he told reporters after talks with Sudan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Karti.

Bassole, the foreign minister of Burkino Faso, faces numerous obstacles to securing peace. Not least an announcement on July 14 that the International Criminal Court wants an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

"My priorities will be defined by the Sudanese but we must strengthen dialogue and ask for a cessation of hostilities to create the conditions to search for a comprehensive political solution," Bassole said.

The mediator met Bashir, a presidential adviser said, and confirmed he would be starting his post on August 1.

"The president gave him a briefing on how to resolve Darfur and said he was ready for any talks with Nafie (Ali Nafie) as the head of the government negotiating team," Bashir's press advisor Mahjoub Fadul told Reuters.

Arab League head Amr Moussa arrived in Sudan late on Sunday and spent two hours in talks with Bashir and other officials saying he had a plan which could help resolve the ICC crisis.

He declined to give details saying talks would continue.

"It was a good reception," he said. "We had very, very serious discussions.

18 MONTHS WITHOUT TALKS

Bassole's task will be complicated by the fact he speaks neither Arabic or English, the languages understood by those negotiating, whether from rebels or from the government.

Bassole will be based in Darfur's main town el-Fasher, an improvement on his predecessors, U.N. envoy Jan Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim, who were often criticized for their "part-time diplomacy" jetting into the country for short visits every few months.

In 18 months they failed to arrange any meaningful peace talks, rebel positions became more hardline and ongoing violence on the ground in Darfur and in neighboring Chad heightened insecurity hindering the world's largest aid operation there.

International experts estimate 200,000 have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the government of neglect.

On Sunday the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) accused the government of bombing a village called Seref in the rebel-held area of Jabel Moun near the Chad border.