They held talks for more than two hours to discuss a framework agreement aimed at ending 19 years of civil war, which has pitted the mainly Christian and animist south against the Islamic government in the north.

The southern newspaper Khartoum Monitor has expressed its hopes for peace in a verse editorial. The following is the text of the poem as published in English by the paper:

Bashir and Garang shake hands,

Antonov bombers turn into cargo planes,

Tanks become road graders,

Bashir and Garang shake hands.

Fighters become nurses and farmers,

The destitute become business executives,

Bashir and Garang shake hands.

Famine gives way to food security,

Malnutrition disappears,

Bashir and Garang shake hands.

Suspicion gives way to trust,

Generosity shatters selfishness,

Bashir and Garang shake hands.

Sudan discovers itself and reaches,

A point of no return,

On the way to peace.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.