Ethiopian President calls for Sudanese peace

The Ethiopian President, Meles Zenawi, has said that peace in Sudan matters not just to the Sudanese, but to the security and political situation of the whole region. "We must work hard for peace in Sudan because it has an enormous impact on everyone," Zenawi said, as he boarded a plane in Khartoum on Friday evening. Zenawi, who held talks with the Sudanese President, Omar Bashir on Friday, did not comment on the peace initiative that he is thought to have presented to Bashir. He said that Sudan will only find peace when it is "united with one army”, a reference to the bloody conflict underway between the Sudanese army and the SPLM-N in Southern Kordofan state. Zenawi did not provide details of his conversation with Bashir, although the meeting was thought to have discussed the two countries’ common interests, as well as the deterioration of the situation in provinces of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan. The Zenawi’s visit to Khartoum lasted only a few hours.