New UN envoy for northern Uganda

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Mozambique's former President Joaquim Chissano has been named as the United Nations envoy to help resolve the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda

He was appointed by outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan to seek a solution addressing the conflict's root causes.

Mr Chissano is to liaise with the government and rebel Lord's Resistance Army as peace talks falter.

Tens of thousands of people have died and more than one-and-a-half million displaced during the war.

Mr Annan said Mr Chissano will also liaise with the International Criminal Court (ICC), where LRA leader Joseph Kony and four other senior figures have been indicted for war crimes.

"He will develop a cohesive and forward-looking policy approach among all external actors," the outgoing UN chief said in a letter to the UN Security Council.

Last month, the LRA suspended participation in peace talks with the government, with the Ugandan army denying claims that they killed three rebel fighters heading to assembly areas in southern Sudan.

The peace talks, which began in July in Juba in southern Sudan are seen as the best chance to end the conflict, but the two sides have repeatedly argued over alleged truce violations.

The former Mozambique leader, who stepped down in 2005, was named a few months later by the African Union as an envoy to help solve Zimbabwe's political problems, but his appointment was rejected by President Robert Mugabe.