Darfur's numerous rebel groups will meet next week in what diplomats describe as the best opportunity for working towards peace in the war-torn region of western Sudan for more than a year.
A conference in Arusha, Tanzania, will be hosted by a combined team from the African Union and the UN, which has been shuttling across the vast semi-desert region for several weeks in a bid to persuade rival rebel leaders to prepare for full-scale peace talks with the Sudanese government in September.
The meeting comes amid a sharp deterioration in food supplies for the two million people who live in villages cut off by fighting or who have fled to UN-aided camps for the displaced. The World Food programme (WFP) said this week nine food convoys were attacked by gunmen across Darfur in the past fortnight, as many as in the first five months of the year.
Some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers are deployed in Darfur, but do not have the capacity to escort food convoys.
A peace deal negotiated in Nigeria last May between the Khartoum government and three rebel groups failed after two of the three refused to sign. The rebels, who represent different tribes, have since split into a dozen factions.
Jan Eliasson, a former Swedish foreign minister who is the UN special envoy for Sudan, and Salim Salim, a former Tanzanian prime minister, have managed to convince at least six of the main rebel leaders to go to Arusha.
Diplomats say the groups have similar demands but need to prepare a "coordinated negotiating position". If the Arusha meeting succeeds the UN and AU would send out invitations for talks with the government in September.
More people in Darfur are being killed in tribal clashes, often over scarce productive land, than in fighting between the rebels and the government and its allied militias, Mr Eliasson said recently. Combined with the splintering of the rebel groups, this made the conflict increasingly hard to solve. "The cultural, social and economic fabric of Darfur is gone," he said.
Abdul Wahid al Nur, who represents the Fur tribe, is the only senior leader refusing to go to Arusha. Described by diplomats as "the iconic figure whom the people in the camps see as their representative", his absence would be damaging. Abdul Shafi, a top Fur field commander who broke with Mr Wahid last year, is expected to attend.
In New York arguments are raging over a British and French draft for a security council resolution for a hybrid UN/AU force of 19,555 troops and 6,400 police. An explicit reference to new sanctions in the case of non-compliance has been dropped but troops could use force "to prevent attacks against civilians".
Andrew Natsios, the US special envoy for Sudan, said he opposed any US units in Darfur "because politically right now it would create the wrong impression". Khartoum has said Washington is preparing "another Iraq".