UN chief: Darfur peace deal on brink of collapse

The "severely paralyzed" Darfur peace agreement "does not resonate with the people" and is in danger of collapse, the head of the U.N. mission in Sudan wrote on his personal blog last week. But Jan Pronk said the pact was still salvageable if revisions were made, calling it "a good text, an honest compromise." And he urged its quick implementation, saying, "it meets more and more resistance" as time passes. On Sunday, Pronk underlined in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press by his office in Khartoum that in his blog article last week he "neither argued for a re-writing of the text, nor for a reopening of the talks." He was apparently responding to news reports that misinterpreted his article. The deal aimed at ending three years of bloodshed was signed May 5 by the Sudanese government and the main rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement, though a dissident SLM leader and another rebel group refused to sign.