Museveni, Gaddafi Hold Talks With Garang

By Hellen Mukiibi And Agencies PRESIDENTS Yoweri Museveni and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya on Monday held talks with John Garang, leader of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The three-hour meeting took place in Kampala at the end of Gaddafi's visit to Uganda. The Libyan leader was in Uganda for a three-day visit during which he attended the Empango celebrations in Tooro. Agencies reported that Gaddafi said after his talks with Museveni in Kampala that there would be further progress in relations between Sudan and Uganda, which have already agreed to reopen embassies in their respective capitals. Press Secretary Hope Kivengere described the meeting as "part of the ongoing mediation efforts" towards revival of ties between Uganda and Sudan. The two leaders and their Sudanese counterpart Omar Bashir last met in May in Kampala at Museveni's swearing-in. Following his visits to Uganda and Zimbabwe as well as Zambia, where he met many leaders at the African summit, Gaddafi said he found "a new spirit and willingness for resolving this problem in a pacific African spirit." Like Sudan, Uganda is a participant in a separate peace initiative launched by the East African IGAD grouping based in Kenya. The IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, also comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, but he did not say whether these countries also supported the Arab initiative at the summit in Lusaka. Ends