A senior US official said he would continue negotiations on a peace plan for Sudan's Darfur region today, indicating today's deadline for an agreement would slip.
"I will be here tomorrow, beyond that I don't know," US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told reporters on Tuesday evening.
The government of Sudan has accepted an 85-page draft settlement but three Darfur rebel factions refuse to sign, saying they are unhappy with the proposals on security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing.
Zoellick and Britain's International Development Secretary Hilary Benn held back-to-back meetings with the sides and observers said their involvement could jolt the rebels into accepting the peace plan.
"They need to make the hard decisions for peace so that the killing can be stopped," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack in Washington.
Mediators say the rebels insist some of their demands, such as a vice president's post and a regional government, be met in full although months of negotiations have shown compromises with Khartoum are necessary.
Zoellick declined to say how long the talks might now last, noting his role was to try to bridge gaps between the sides.
"I will only continue to do that if I see we are in a position to try and accomplish that," he said.
There was no immediate confirmation of the apparent changed deadline from the AU.
The 2300 GMT deadline, already put back by 48 hours, had been expected to slip as AU Chairman Denis Sassou Nguesso, the president of Congo Republic, and commission head Alpha Oumar Konare -- were due to arrive in Abuja today.
Observers say failure to get a deal would be disastrous