KHARTOUM (IRIN)�The Sudanese Government announced in early August that an Afro-Arab peace summit would be held in September in an attempt to end the country�s 18-year civil war.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma�il told the AFP news agency that representatives from Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Kenya and several other African countries would meet in Tripoli to look at ways to implement the recently agreed joint Egyptian-Libyan peace proposal.

Opposition parties from both northern and southern Sudan had declared their support for the summit, AFP added.

The Sudanese government-owned news agency, Suna, quoted the residential political adviser, Qutbi al-Mahdi, as saying: "The Afro-Arab summit is a good step to engage all the nations concerned with the Sudan peace process towards reaching a regionally accepted solution."

The Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative�accepted by the Sudanese government and a number of opposition and rebel groups in July�provides for an interim government in which all political forces will be represented.

Although the National Democratic Alliance�an umbrella movement for southern and northern rebel opposition groups�has broadly welcomed the initiative, it wants to add the principles
of self-determination for the south and the separation of religion and state, as a parallel initiative under the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.

Meanwhile, new economic restrictions against Sudan, sought by human rights activists, are under assault from business groups.

Proposed legislation which would close U.S. stock exchanges to foreign companies investing in Sudan and other countries already the target of trade and investment boycotts, is in deep trouble as a result of heavy lobbying from financial services firms, The Washington Times newspaper reported on April 3.

After initially shrugging off a House of Representatives vote in favor of the "Sudan Peace Act," the Bush administration now seems determined to kill the sanctions included in the bill, according to internal administration documents and industry lobbyists cited by the newspaper.

In June, the House voted 422 to 2 in favor of a bill designed to increase pressure on the Sudanese government by specifying that no foreign company should be allowed to raise money in the U.S., or continue an existing public listing, while doing business in Sudan.

If enacted, the bill would oust Talisman Inc. of Canada, China�s PetroChina, and other firms from the New York Stock Exchange; American companies are already barred from trading with or investing in Sudan by presidential executive orders.

However, the U.S. Senate passed a version of the bill without the sanctions, and the administration of President George W. Bush was preparing to lobby against the sanctions, according to an internal memorandum cited by The Washington Times on April 3.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in late July congressional testimony that "the clear outcome of such a law would effectively be to move financing from New York to London," the paper reported. "If we move in directions which undermine our financial capacity, we are undermining potential long-term growth of the American economy," Greenspan added.

Roger Robinson, chairman of the William J. Casey Institute, which had lobbied hard for the bill, admitted to campaigners that the sanctions "may fall victim to this coordinated political onslaught," the Washington Times reported.