A meeting between Sierra Leone's government and rebels began Friday in Nigeria, brokered by west African leaders hopeful of getting a stalled peace process back under way, officials said.
The talks, attended by a government delegation from Freetown led by Justice Minister Solomon Barewa and delegates of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), started shortly after 10:00 am (0900 GMT).
The top agenda items were restructuring of the Sierra Leonean army, free movement of people in the country and the return of all seized weapons, an official in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) told AFP.
The official said the one-day meeting was aimed at laying the groundwork for direct talks between the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and the RUF, under the new leadership of General Issa Sessay.
A six-nation ECOWAS Committee on Sierra Leone was involved in the talks, where the official said the rival sides would discuss an immediate ceasefire and consider a political agenda put forward by the RUF.
Sierra Leonean government officials, however, have ruled out discussing any political demands by the rebels, who signed a peace pact in July 1999, under which former RUF leader Corporal Foday Sankoh obtained vice-presidential status until renewed hostilities broke out.
Sankoh is now in government custody in devastated Sierra Leone, where the brutal conflict began in 1991 and a stretched UN force is now endeavoring to keep the peace.
The meeting in the Nigerian capital, where ECOWAS has its headquarters, will "rekindle the peace process in that country which was jeopardized in May following renewed fighting by the RUF", the 16-nation grouping said in a statement.
The talks had been due to start on Thursday but were delayed by the late arrival of delegates.
The six members of the ECOWAS Committee on Sierra Leone are Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Mali and Togo. The UN Secretary-General's special envoy to Sierra Leone, Olu Adeniji, and ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lansana Kouyate are attending the meeting, officials said.
The talks follow a decision by ministerial meeting in Abuja of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council on October 4.
The 10-member Council was set up this year during the 22nd ECOWAS summit in Lome as one of the structures for the resolution of conflicts in the west African region -- ABUJA (AFP)
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