UK PM makes offer on Darfur peace talks

LONDON, England (AP) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered to hold peace talks on Darfur in London, his office said Saturday.

News of the offer was timed to coincide with the Global Day for Darfur on Sunday, a day of events meant to raise awareness of the suffering in the Western Sudanese region.

"This is a formal offer to hold these talks in London," Brown's spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with policy. He did not specify who had been invited, and it wasn't clear how likely the talks were.

Fighting has raged in http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Darfur since 2003, when ethnic African tribesman took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese Arab-dominated government.

The Sudanese government has been accused of unleashing Arab militias known as the janjaweed forces to commit atrocities against ethnic African communities in the fight with rebel groups.

The U.N. believes that far more than 200,000 people have been killed, and millions have been forced from their homes.

The unwillingness of some of Darfur's divided rebel forces to participate in negotiations have scuppered past talks. In October, the two main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement and SLA-Unity, boycotted peace talks in Libya.

Lawmakers, actors, authors and activists plan to mark Sunday with protests, grim advertisements, and other events to raise awareness of the suffering and urge governments to do more. Watch warnings that Darfur's children are becoming a lost generation »

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and other authors of children's books have signed an open letter calling for more support for the children affected by the bloodshed.

"It is time to change the narrative," the letter reads. "It is time to tell a different story. This April many children in Darfur will be reaching their fifth birthdays without ever having known peace. The world needs to wake up."

Actors Matt Damon and Thandie Newton are participating in a television advertisement campaign which shows them cutting and shattering toys in an effort to highlight the suffering of children in the country.

Protests will take place in around 30 countries on Sunday, the charity Crisis Action said, calling for an immediate deployment of more peacekeeping troops.

In a statement Sunday, Brown backed the demand, saying he was frustrated by the "appalling situation and the slow progress."

He called for the faster deployment of international peacekeepers to Darfur and said he would be working with the United States, United Nations and African leaders in the coming week to restart the peace process.

"Five years is more than enough for anyone to have to live with the sort of suffering that the people of Darfur have had to endure," Brown said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also been critical of slow progress in getting an expanded African Union-U.N. force in place.

The AU-U.N. force is authorized to have 26,000 troops and police, but Ban said only about 7,500 military personnel and 1,500 police officers were in Darfur on January 31. E-mail to a friend

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