Fresh from the Foggy Bottom print shop:

Washington -- Measurable progress is being made on resolving conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan by the United States and international partners that have been working to arrange talks among the warring parties, a U.S. diplomat says.

A Darfur cease-fire, brokered in part by the Libyan government, is working, and the number of deaths is lower than it was in 2006, U.S. Special Envoy Andrew Natsios said recently during a meeting of Africa specialists at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

"I am more optimistic now than I've been in a long time," Natsios said. "But it is a guarded optimism. Much hard work still needs to be done" to convince rebel leaders to resolve their differences so they can approach peace talks with a unified set of proposals as well as ensure Sudanese compliance with the U.N. proposal to deploy 24,000 peacekeepers to Darfur in a joint African Union (AU)-United Nations force.

Darfur also will be on the agenda of the upcoming U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, which will be followed by peace talks between Sudanese government and rebel leaders in Tripoli, hosted by the Libyan government October 27, Natsios said.

At the U.N. General Assembly meeting, Natsios said, one of the major topics of discussion will be "how we as the international community continue to use our leverage and influence to keep the Darfur peace talks on track."

Together with international partners, Natsios said, "we are discussing measures, including sanctions, to discourage anyone on any side from taking actions that will jeopardize the [Tripoli] talks. This includes the government of Sudan," as well as rebel groups.

Since violence first sparked in Darfur in 2003, more than 200,000 lives have been lost and 2.5 million people displaced in fighting between government-backed forces called the Janjaweed and rebel movements contending for power.

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