By Tom Ashby LAGOS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Rebel groups in Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta will return to talks with the government next week, but it may not spell an end to attacks on Africa's largest oil industry, negotiators and militants said on Friday. Rebels have been engaged in tentative peace talks since the inauguration of a new government in May, but violence against the industry has been rising since September when a rebel commander was arrested on gun-running charges in Angola. Militant attacks have curbed oil output from the world's eighth largest exporter by about 20 percent, stoking fears of a supply crunch and helping push world oil prices to record highs. The rebels formally withdrew from talks last month, accusing the government of insincerity. But Vice President Goodluck Jonathan asked them to return at a meeting last week. "We are going back to the negotiating table," said Chris Ekiyor, president of ethnic rights organisation Ijaw Youth Council and member of the negotiating team. Jonathan agreed to take personal charge of the talks and push the process forward. But not all rebel factions are in agreement over the return to talks. One faction of the main rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), has refused to participate in preliminary talks while its leader, Henry Okah, remains in jail in Angola. "This is not the first time we have heard of representatives returning to the negotiating table. MEND will not be part of the process until Henry Okah is released unconditionally," a spokesman for the faction said in an e-mail to Reuters. Fractious rebel groups have a wide range of demands, but all want more oil money to stay in the delta to bring development and jobs to the remote, impoverished region. "This is a complex process that cannot be solved with a wand. There must be continuous engagement and all sides must be committed to the process," said Miabiye Kuromiema, a director of non-government group Our Niger Delta who has also been involved in the contacts. Jonathan aims to wrap up the preliminary contacts by the end of February, opening the way for formal talks. As preconditions for the talks, rebels have demanded a halt to military raids, amnesty, demilitarisation, Okah's release and a declaration of the "developmental emergency" in the delta. Okah's MEND faction has claimed responsibility for several attacks on industry facilities in the region over the past few weeks, including shooting at six ships in a major shipping channel, an explosion on an oil tanker and the killing of a police officer escorting a port manager. "What you are seeing is the calm before a storm. We are working on a major terrifying event that will be a date not easily forgotten like 9/11," the spokesman said. "Those smaller raids serve as irritants and reminders that all is not well and over." (editing by Elizabeth Piper)
REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT A plume of smoke rises from an oil tanker after an explosion in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, January 11, 2008. Militants fighting for autonomy in Nigeria's oil-producing south ...
