Sierra Leone warring sides begin new peace talks

ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Warring parties in Sierra Leone began talks on Friday aimed at reviving an agreement intended to end the West African country's nine-year conflict, witnesses said.

Peace conference sources said the talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja could run into problems over demands by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) for the release of its detained leader Foday Sankoh.

Officials said the talks agenda includes a review of key issues covered under a comprehensive peace accord signed by RUF and Sierra Leone's government in 1999.

These include notably a ceasefire, the return of all weapons that the RUF seized RUF from United Nations peacekeepers, a return to disarming combatants and the deployment of U.N. troops across the country.

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A peace accord signed in 1991 in Lome, Togo, was shattered in May when RUF rebels abducted hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers and held them for weeks.

Sankoh was arrested following that incident and a resumption of fighting by his guerrillas.

RUF sources said the release of Sankoh would be one of their demands at the talks.

The five-member government delegation is headed by Solomon Barewa, the country's justice minister and attorney-general.

The rebel team, whose late arrival cause a delay in the meeting originally billed for Thursday, is led by Jonathan Kposowa, who is the RUF chief of administration. It includes RUF spokesman Gibril Massaquoi.

Massaquoi said on Thursday that RUF, which took up arms in 1991 and controls the north and the diamond east of Sierra Leone, was ready to disarm and work with the government only if its conditions were met.

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