(18 Jun 2005) SHOTLIST
1. Exterior shot of centre where signing took place
2. Security outside
3. Wide shot of conference room, audience applauding as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir enter
4. Mubarak and el-Bashir waving
5. Men in audience chanting and waving
6. Wide shot of hall
7. Mubarak and el-Bashir seated
8. John Garang, leader of Sudan's People's Liberation Army (SPLA) - on the right - and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) chairman Mohammed Osman Mirghani seated
9. Men in audience applauding
10. Various shots of Mirghani signing peace agreement and shaking hands
11. Sudan's Vice President, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, signing peace agreement
12. Wide shot of audience, man chanting
STORYLINE
The Sudanese government signed a reconciliation agreement with one of its largest opposition groupings on Saturday, ending a 16-year conflict with a deal officials hope will help resolve the country's bloody fighting in Darfur.
The accord was signed in Cairo, Egypt with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The NDA is an umbrella group that includes 13 political parties and other professional and trade unions, and has an armed wing that the government wants to absorb into the national army.
"We've put our hands together and unified our goals to compensate the people of Sudan for all what they've missed on during the era of conflicts," said Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir at a signing ceremony attended by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Under the reconciliation agreement, the NDA will be incorporated into a
power-sharing government being set up under the government's peace deal with the main southern rebel army, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
The agreement reflects the Khartoum government's desire to clean up the country's multiple political and military conflicts after reaching a peace deal in January with southern rebels.
That deal ended a 21-year civil war that killed 2 million (m) people and displaced four (m) million more from their homes.
In the civil war, southern rebels - mostly Christians and animists - had been resisting domination by the mostly Muslim north and the imposition of Islamic law.
The NDA is made up mainly of northern-based groups, which have been trying to loosen the lock on power el-Bashir has held since a 1989 military coup.
All sides hope the reconciliation will help end the bloodshed in the western region of Darfur, where at least 180,000 people have died and two (m) million been displaced during two years of violence.
The NDA has said it and southern rebels have influence with rebels in Darfur and can help in peace talks with the government.
Mubarak and el-Bashir afterward held private talks.
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