Angola peace talks bring truce

LUENA, Angola (CNN) -- As part of a renewed peace initiative in Angola, UNITA rebels and government military leaders have held peace talks and plan to continue their negotiations in the rebel-controlled part of the country, according to local media reports.

The talks come less than a month after long-time UNITA leader, Jonas Savimbi, was killed in a battle with army troops. Less than two weeks later, the man who was expected to take command of UNITA, Antonio Dembo, also died.

Angola's government announced a new 15-point peace declaration on Thursday, a move welcomed by the United Nations, according to the U.N. Web site.

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has waged almost constant war against the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been Angola's leader since 1979. The civil war is believed to have killed about 500,000 people, though there are no confirmed figures.

After Friday's talks, the two sides reaffirmed their "unequivocal compromise with the Lusaka peace protocol and their determination of making efforts towards the immediate and definitive cessation of hostilities," the Angolan Press Agency reported.

The U.N. mediated the Lusaka peace accord in 1994, but it failed to fully take hold. Five years later, Angola announced it would abandon the peace treaty after fighting renewed, and closed down the U.N. observer post in the country.

The first meeting between between Angola military chiefs, led by Gen. Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda, and UNITA rebels, headed by Gen. Abreu Muengo Ucuatchitembo "Kamorteiro," took place in the Cassamba district of rebel-controlled Moxico province in southwestern Angola.

Monday's talks are scheduled to take place in Luena, Moxico's capital, according to Angola's state news agency.

Fighting between the rebels and government forces has continued since Savimbi's death, especially in Moxico, where Savimbi was killed.

Analysts hope the renewed Angolan peace effort will spread to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where a brutal civil war has engulfed at least six other African nations, including Angola. Congo peace talks are under way in South Africa.

-- Journalist Paul Tilsley in Johannesburg contributed to this report