WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States called Thursday for all Darfur rebel groups to play a role in talks on a peace agreement and said that people in the war-torn region needed to see concrete improvements in security.

Sudan's government and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the main rebel group in the parched western region, signed a cease-fire last month and are holding talks in Doha toward a full peace agreement.

Retired general Scott Gration, the US special envoy for Darfur, said the newly formed Liberation and Justice Movement, which represents most other rebel groups, needed to have "a clear voice" in the Doha negotiations.

"The United States supports a peace process that is inclusive, that is comprehensive," Gration told reporters.

"The Darfuri civil society, the IDPs (internally displaced people), the diaspora and the refugees must also have a voice in this process," he said.

Gration said the best option would be for Darfur rebels to unite under one leader, but said that negotiations should otherwise take separate tracks with different rebel blocs holding talks on a future deal.

The Darfur conflict has claimed about 300,000 lives and displaced 2.7 million people, according to UN figures, since it erupted in February 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir on February 24 visited Darfur and declared that the war was over, pointing to the agreement with JEM.

But Gration said Darfur needed more than a peace treaty.

"The problems of banditry and lawlessness must be dealt with quickly if the people of Darfur are to see real improvement in their local security environment," he said.

Since the cease-fire with the JEM, there has also been a flare-up in fighting between government forces and another rebel faction, Abdelwahid Nur's Sudan Liberation Army.

Gration was back in Washington after a trip to Sudan along with Chad, Qatar and Rwanda.

He said he would travel again this weekend, heading back to Doha and to Nairobi for a conference on implementation of a fragile separate 2005 agreement in Sudan's 22-year north-south civil war.

Gration said he would also visit Paris for talks with French officials.