"Indications show that a peace agreement will be reached in two months," the president told students in a speech at the headquarters of the ruling National Congress party.

"We are for both a durable and just peace, as an unjust peace cannot be a lasting one," Beshir said.

Beshir envisioned that under the agreement, the constitution would have to be amended, and said the sharing of resources, one of the key issues being negotiated currently with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), would be resolved within the existing federal system.

The future of SPLA forces once a permanent peace agreement is signed is an issue not yet resolved, Beshir said.

On Friday, Sudan's state minister for foreign affairs Najib al-Khair Abdel Wahab told AFP he expected Beshir and SPLA leader John Garang to sign a final accord in late June in Nairobi.

He said reports from Machakos, Kenya, where negotiations are underway "indicate much optimism for resolving the controversial issues" of power and resources sharing, security arrangements and preparations for a six-year transitional period.

A protocol signed in Machakos last July provided for a six-year period of autonomy for the SPLA-controlled south ahead of a referendum to decide whether the south would secede or be granted more autonomy.

Sudan's civil war has since 1983 pitted the Khartoum government, representing the mostly Islamic Arab north, against the SPLA, based in the country's mainly Christian and animist south.

WAR.WIRE