Cancel the latest peace talks. Negotiations between Sudanese government (Khartoum) representatives and rebel officials meeting in Nairobi ended in a bitter deadlock. The Khartoum government had said it would consider an autonomy referendum for the southern Sudan but would not consider a "separate secular constitution" applicable to the south. The southerners are mostly Christians or animists. The northerners, who are Muslim, have opposed any type of "secular" state.