KHARTOUM, 1 September 2005 — Sudan’s president vowed yesterday to work to end the suffering of the people of Darfur and pushed for a peace deal modeled on January’s accord that ended the 21-year southern civil war. Omar Bashir’s comments came the day after his vice president authorized Sudanese negotiators meeting Darfur rebel groups on Sept. 15 to conclude an agreement to try end the two-year conflict in western Sudan.

“The problem of Darfur and its repercussions remain a thorn in the country’s back and a stain on the clean cloth of peace,” the Sudanese president told 450 lawmakers at a session of the new Parliament formed as a result of the southern peace deal. Sudan, a nation ravaged by conflict for decades, has been basking in a period of rare optimism following the January signing of a peace deal that ended the southern war.

But the separate Darfur conflict in western Sudan has been raging since February 2003 after rebels from black African tribes took up of arms after complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.

The United States accuses Bashir’s government of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militia in a campaign of murder, rape and arson against black African tribes from Darfur.

More than 1.9 million people were forced to flee their homes since the conflict began, while war-induced hunger and disease have killed more than 180,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.

Bashir has denied claims that his government has backed the militia, known as the Janjaweed, in the violence and said yesterday that Sudan’s justice and security authorities are trying to secure areas where violence persists in Darfur and “apprehend the criminals and punish them.”

He also said the southern comprehensive peace agreement, which outlined systems of power and wealth sharing and offered a referendum to southerners in six years to decide if they wanted autonomy, could serve as a model for Darfur’s warring parties to follow. “This would mean a just distribution of wealth and sharing of power (in Darfur) so that all claims of marginalization would end,” said Bashir.

In a wide-ranging address to Sudan’s Parliament, Bashir also touched on the war in Iraq, with the Sudanese leader calling for the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces from that war-ravaged country. “We call for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq so that the Iraqi people would spell out their views on their own future,” said Bashir. “We also stand with Iraq and its territorial integrity and security.”

Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party signed the peace accord with the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in January, ending Africa’s longest-running conflict which claimed two million lives and displaced an estimated four million people. The formation of the government should have been completed by Aug. 9, but the process was interrupted by the death in a July 30 helicopter crash of former southern leader and First Vice President John Garang.

Bashir said government — to be made up of 30 ministers and 34 junior ministers — would be announced “very soon” but did not give a specific date. Sudanese officials said a dispute over the energy and mining portfolio that had delayed announcing the cabinet lineup had been resolved.