By Tim Cocks KAMPALA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The Ugandan government said on Thursday it was confident peace talks with the Lord's Resistance Army rebels aimed at ending one of Africa's longest wars would succeed, despite delays and mistrust on both sides. This month the two sides signed an extension of a landmark truce that many hope will draw a line under a brutal 20-year insurgency that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 2 million in northern Uganda. "The fact that we have not finalised the talks may be a source of frustration ... but the peace process, we are confident, will succeed," Internal Affairs Minister Rukuhana Rugunda, the head of the government negotiating team, told reporters. He was speaking on a visit to Kampala after a break in the talks to allow the LRA's delegates to consult the high command in their jungle hideouts about the next phase of the agreement. The renewed ceasefire gives the LRA until Dec. 1 to assemble at two meeting places in southern Sudan -- Owiny-Ki-Bul on the Uganda border and Ri-Kwangba on the Congo border -- near the top commanders' hideouts in the Congo forest. Truce monitors said the LRA had failed to assemble by a Sept. 19 deadline. The LRA complained the assembly areas lacked clean water and food, and they said the Ugandan army was surrounding them. But Rugunda said their concerns had been addressed and a non-governmental organisation would provide food, water and drugs to the areas. "We have made sure this time the essential facilities at these assembly points are in place," Rugunda said. "(We are) making sure that water is available." He added that the new agreement had defined the assembly areas more precisely and tightened the time frame within which an agreement on pending matters must be completed. ARREST WARRANTS LRA leader Joseph Kony and deputy Vincent Otti have said they will never sign a deal unless arrest warrants for them at the International Criminal Court in the Hague are dropped. Kony, Otti and three other LRA commanders are wanted for war crimes, including killing civilians, rape, and abducting children to serve as fighters and sex slaves. But Rugunda reiterated that Uganda will request the ICC to drop the charges only after a comprehensive peace deal is signed and the rebel leaders have undergone traditional 'Mato Oput' justice rituals, seen by many as an alternative to the Hague. "Uganda has repeatedly stated: take the talks seriously, conclude them, have a peace agreement, go through Mato Oput. Government will (then) engage International Criminal Court." The government says Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands have committed aid in recent months. U.N. humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland will visit Juba this weekend to support talks, his second trip in two months.
