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DAKAR-The leaders of Chad and Sudan will make a new attempt in Dakar on Wednesday to overcome tensions that have brought the African rivals to the verge of war in the past five years. Despite the added pressure of the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, however, neither Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir nor Chad's President Idriss Deby have committed to signing a peace accord that the Senegalese hosts have said will be sealed at the summit.Deby arrived in Dakar during the day, but the meeting was put back until Wednesday evening because of Beshir's late arrival. A summit of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Conference will be held in the Senegalese capital on Thursday and Friday.Sudan and Chad accuse each other of backing rebels seeking to overthrow their governments. Solving the dispute is considered a crucial step to ending the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, on the border with Chad, where the UN estimates more than 200,000 people have died since 2003.Around 200,000 Darfur refugees are said to be inside Chad, a tenth of some two million people displaced by a Sudanese army crackdown with Arab militia allies against an ethnic rebel insurgency.The two neighbours have signed several previous accords and blame each other for the failure of the agreements.In February, Chadian rebels who used bases in Sudan stormed the capital, Ndjamena, in a bid to overthrow Deby. The Chad government says Sudan arms and gives other support to the rebels.Chad admitted in January that it had bombed targets inside Sudan that it said were rebel bases. There have been frequent border clashes between the two nation's armies and Chad backs some factions of the rebellion in Darfur against the Khartoum government.Beshir raised doubts about the new accord on Tuesday before his arrival in Dakar.He accused Deby of failing to honour an agreement made in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in May 2007. The two prayed together inside the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine."After the prayers inside the Kaaba, hand in hand, we said: 'We have a deal, and may Allah punish he who breaks it,'" Beshir said during a visit to Dubai."If the Chadian president failed to honour an agreement made inside the Kaaba, how can you expect him to adhere to an agreement he (might) sign in Dakar?" he asked."We already have five (peace) agreements signed with Chad," Beshir said.Sudan's Foreign Minister Sammani al-Wassila later insisted Beshir was going to Dakar with an "open spirit", but he added that it was crucial to make sure any accord on preventing cross-border intrusions was respected.Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi brokered a peace accord in February 2006, while Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic also agreed in 2007 not to support rebellions abroad from their own territory.Senegal has arranged the latest accord and its Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio said late Tuesday that despite Beshir's comments he was "optimistic" that an accord could be signed.Exiled Chadian opposition leader Ngarlejy Yorongar said Wednesday that any accord would be "dead at birth".Yorongar, who fled his country last month, told a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg that there could be no peace deal between Deby and Beshir until all groups in their countries had given their backing.Alongside the UN secretary general and Senegalese leader Abdoulaye Wade, President Omar Bongo of Gabon and current African Union leader Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete have also been invited to the meeting at Wade's residence.As in the days of Noah...
