UN envoy for Sudan Jan Eliasson said on Sunday the international community should assume its responsibility for changing the situation in Sudan's Darfur region for the better.

Eliasson told the opening session of an international meeting on Darfur in the Libyan capital of Tripoli that it is time to reopen negotiations, and he called on the parties concerned to cooperate in setting the stage for restarting the talks.

The UN envoy, who has led missions to Darfur, said he had witnessed the worsening security and instability that people in the region have been suffering and the situation hampers humanitarian relief efforts.

"We have an enormous responsibility toward the people of Darfur," Eliasson said.

He called on all parties concerned to assume their own responsibilities for security, stability and development in the region.

The meeting in Tripoli, the second of its kind this year, is expected to focus on unifying competing peace plans and coordinating stands to pave the way for the restart of negotiations.

Diplomats from the United Nations, the African Union (AU), the Arab League and the European Union, as well as 18 countries including China, attended the meeting. Also attending were the Sudanese government and representatives of the country's rebel groups.

At the meeting, AU envoy for Sudan Salim Ahmed Salim praised efforts to revive negotiations and called on rebel groups to talk to the government.

Last May, the Sudanese government reached a peace deal with the main faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Mini Arkou Minawi, but other rebel factions rejected the deal, claiming it had not met all their demands.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2007)