"I think we will know in the next few weeks if there is any hope in this," US envoy to Sudan John Danforth told a news conference in Nairobi, stressing that the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army were "very close" to resolving outstanding issues at the marathon talks in Kenya.

"What's keeping them from being resolved is simply the will of the parties to resolve them," he said, noting that the main bones of contention had been settled a year ago and that remaining thorns -- power- and wealth-sharing and the status of the capital -- were minor in comparison.

"The two sides are going to have to come together and reach agreement on these points and I believe they can in a very short period of time," said the former senator.

"Right now the United States has been keenly interested, (as have) the British, the Norwegians, the Italians... That interest cannot be sustained for ever," said Danforth.

The latest round of talks ended last weekend, when Khartoum dismissed a draft deal on the outstanding issues as "unbalanced and inconsistent" with previous agreements.

On Monday, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said mediators could "go to hell" if they failed to come up with a "reasonable alternative" to the draft.

Decoding Danforth's diplomacy, a Nairobi-based analyst with the International Crisis Group, David Mozerski, explained how high the stakes were.

"If the international community pulls out, we are looking at the end of the peace process," he told AFP by phone.

Among the various "carrots and sticks" in play are "promises of development aid, removing Sudan from a US list of states sponsoring terrorism, normalising relations with the Western world and the provisions of Sudan Peace Act," said Mozerski.

Under this US law, if US President George W. Bush determined that Khartoum was negotiating in bad faith, Washington could tighten sanctions against Sudan, scupper multilateral loan deals, consider downgrading or suspending diplomatic ties, try to prevent oil revenues being used to buy weapons, push for an arms embargo and step up aid to rebel-held areas.

Bush gave his blessing to Khartoum's peace efforts in April, but has to make another evaluation in October.

Asked if he personally thought both sides were serious about peace, Danforth told the news conference: "I honestly don't know."

"We will know in a very short time by the willingness of these parties to come together and close these differences," he said.

"By short period of time, I mean weeks, not months. The issues are well known, there is nothing new to be discussed" he added.

"Maybe the parties are confortable with the status quo," he added.

"I won't be satisfied until the endgame is completed," he said.

"They will show by their actions not by their words... The time has come not for more speeches, not for more posturing but for closing these remaining issues," he said.

"This has dragged on long enough. Enough people have been killed, enough people have been wounded, enough people's lives have been disrupted by this terrible war and the time has come to conclude it," he said.

The conflict, which pits Khartoum's Islamic government against a mainly animist and Christian south and which has been fanned by the presence of rich oil reserves in the south, has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced four million people since 1983.

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