EGYPT: Hollywood star George Clooney visits Cairo, hoping to convince the Egyptian government to help stop the violence in the war-torn region of Darfur.

Hollywood star George Clooney visited Cairo on Wednesday (December 13, 2006) hoping to convince the Egyptian government to help stop the violence in the war-torn region of Darfur in Eastern Sudan. Clooney also travelled to China over the weekend where he also hoped to persuade China to use its strong ties with the Sudanese government to persuade the government to allow a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, where up to 200,000 people have been killed in the last three years. Clooney met with Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit to discuss the situation in Darfur and was accompanied by Hollywood actor Don Cheadle as well as two former Olympians, . A recent eruption of violence in the last few weeks in Darfur threatens to unravel a recent peace deal between one of the main rebel groups and the government in Khartoum. Human rights groups and western governments have accused Sudanese government-backed tribesmen and government forces of committing genocide in Darfur. In Cairo, Clooney, who visited Darfur in September with his father, said he was hoping to focus on humanitarian issues in his talks. "Well we're hoping to just constantly keep the conversation going on humanitarian issues -- that's our big goal," he said. "Just trying to stay out of the political arena and just find humanitarian solutions," he added. On Tuesday (December 12) United Nations chief Kofi Annan demanded that the world body's human rights watchdog, meeting in special session on Sudan's Darfur, send a clear message that the "nightmare" of violence there had to stop. Over 2 million have also been driven from their homes due to the fighting, which has seen mass rape carried out by the "Janjaweed" militia that is blamed for the worst offences. Sudan denies arming the militia and says that the number of dead in the fighting has been exaggerated. The Sudanese government has resisted western pressure to send UN peacekeepers to Darfur, accusing backers of using the crisis to carry out a plan to control the country. It has, however, consented to an African Union peacekeeping force. Though he was asked repeatedly by reporters about the political issues related to the Darfur conflict, Clooney refused to be drawn in. "I'm staying out of politics, I'm not very good at it," he said. The 45 year-old Clooney is one of Hollywood's highest paid stars, and shot to fame in films like One Fine Day and Ocean's Eleven after starring in the hit TV show, ER.

ITN Source | December 14, 2006

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