EL FASHER, Sudan, Sept 05, SPA -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised to step up efforts to end the four-year-oldconflict on his first visit to Darfur Wednesday and urgedthe world to be more sympathetic to the millions of peoplewhose lives have been uprooted. He said the deployment of a 26,000-strong AfricanUnion-U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur was now on a «goodtrack» and «it is crucially important that a politicalnegotiation process start now.» U.N. and AU envoys have been trying to get eight key rebelgroups back to the negotiating table with the Sudanesegovernment and Ban said «we are coming close to agreeingon the venue and date.» «I'm really going to step up this political negotiationprocess,» he said on the third day of a trip to Sudan thatwill also take him to Chad and Libya, the Associated Press reported. The secretary general spoke to reporters en route to NorthDarfur's capital of El Fasher from Juba in southern Sudan,where he stressed the link between a political solution inDarfur and implementation of a 2005 peace agreement endingthe 21-year civil war between Sudanese government inthe north and rebels in the south. He was greeted at El Fasher's airport under extremelytight security by the governor of North Darfur, MohamedOsman Kibir, before receiving an official welcome at the AUheadquarters.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/480260