Asked about the meeeting that Sudan's FIrst Vice President Salva Kiir will hold with US officials, in the US, Sean McCormack, the Spokesman for the Department Of State said yesterday that the focus will be on encouraging resolving problems through dialog and within a Sudan unity government.

McCormack said "This is a meeting at which we're going to cover a number of different issues and talk about the state of play in implementation of the Government of National Unity. We're going to talk about the situation in Darfur. We're going to talk about the importance of Mr. Kiir leading by example, working to complete implementation of the Government of National Unity and also to have him encourage those remaining rebel groups in the south that are outside the Government of National Unity to engage in the Abuja process. It is through this process of political negotiation and dialogue that we believe that they will find an answer to those long-standing armed disputes.

"We believe that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the example of the formation of the Government of National Unity is a positive example for those groups that are on the outside of this process right now to follow. It provides a kind of roadmap for how you might come to a political solution and serves as an example that there is a political solution to previously held differences between two groups.