Sudan's president has promised to pay $300m in compensation to the country's war-torn Darfur region, tripling a previous pledge.
Former US president Jimmy Carter said Omar Hassan al-Bashir had made the pledge during talks with him and other members of a visiting group of elder statesmen including the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Khartoum on Monday.
Mr Bashir pledged that $100m would come from the government and a further $200m would be a loan from China.
Sudan promised to pay $30m in compensation to Darfur under the terms of a 2006 peace agreement signed with one rebel group.
Other rebel groups who refused to sign rejected the offer as too low and remained unhappy when it was later raised to $100 million.
Mr Carter said Mr Bashir had promised to allow international observers into Sudan to make sure national elections scheduled for 2009 were 'honest and fair'.
Mr Bashir also told Mr Carter that a national census, due to start in Sudan in February, had been delayed.
International experts say some 200,000 people have died in Darfur since mainly rebels took up arms against the government in 2003.
