Libyan Foreign Minister Omar al-Montassir arrived in Cairo on November 11 went straight into talks with his Egyptian counterpart Amr Moussa on efforts in helping Sudan achieve national reconciliation.

Moussa said earlier that he and his Libyan counterpart will discuss the coordination between the two countries' efforts and those exerted by other parties related to the Sudanese issue, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency.

Egypt and Libya proposed in August a five-point peace plan, which calls for a permanent cease-fire in Sudan and a meeting of a preparatory committee for a peace conference aimed at seeking national reconciliation in Sudan.

The Sudanese government and the country's Muslim opposition parties have accepted the proposal, which they said forms a basis for the peace process in the Africa's largest country.

But the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has expressed reservations over the initiative, saying that it favored the role played by the Eastern African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, in mediating between it and the government.

The northern Muslim parties, which want to share power with Sudan's Islamic government, and the SPLA, which has been fighting since 1983 for greater autonomy for the mostly Christian south, formed an umbrella group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The NDA will meet on November 22 in Kampala, Uganda, to forge a final stand on the Egyptian-Libyan initiative.

Moussa disclosed that contacts are underway to merge the Egypt-Libyan peace plan with IGAD's mediation role. But he said "the matter is still a subject to consideration and discussions."

Egypt has repeated its keenness on securing Sudan's sovereignty and territorial integrity and plays a key role in mediating between the Sudanese government and the opposition for fear that a

possible disintegration of its southern neighbor may endanger the Nile, its major water source.