South Sudan peace talks break up without deal

By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Talks to end more than a year of fighting in South Sudan broke up on Friday without a deal or an agreement when to meet again, as mediators said they had failed to persuade either side to make a compromise. The adjournment was the latest impasse in peace efforts in the world's youngest country -- where a political row between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar triggered a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. "I regret to inform you that the talks did not produce the necessary breakthrough," Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopia's prime minister and the chairman of regional body IGAD which is hosting the talks in Addis Ababa, said in a statement. "I asked them to be courageous in offering compromises and alternatives, rather than only reiterating old positions. Both regional and world leaders joined this call. Unfortunately, as the missed deadline shows, our pleas have not been heeded," he added. His comments echoed widespread frustration at the lack of progress in South Sudan, an oil-producing country which seceded from Sudan in 2011 with promises of good will and support from most world powers. Hailemariam said he would press Kiir and Machar to keep to an earlier agreement to share power in a transitional government by July. But in another possible sign of disillusionment over the peace efforts, an African Union report seen by Reuters this week suggested the bloc was considering a separate plan to bar both Kiir and Machar from any future transitional government and effectively place the country under its control. South Sudan government spokesman Michael Makuei said it was premature to say the latest talks had failed, "but we say we are suspending the talks for further consultations," he told reporters in Addis Ababa. Diplomats in Addis Ababa said the latest round of talks was held up by disagreement over the structure of any future government, and how much power would be allocated to each side. More than 1.5 million people have fled the ethnically-fuelled fighting which erupted in December 2013 and has often pitted Kiir's Dinka people against the Nuer of Machar. Ceasefires agreed by both sides have quickly broken down.