Washington  - US President George W Bush is to meet with Sudanese Vice President Salva Kiir on Monday at the White House, where they will discuss the status of the long-running conflict and genocide in Darfur, the White House said Friday.

Kiir is first vice president of the government of National Unity of Sudan and president of the government of Southern Sudan.

She took over as vice president of the unity government after John Garang was killed in an August 2005 helicopter crash. Garang had been head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the 20-year-long, separate civil war in the south that is believed to have claimed more than 1 million lives.

Garang signed a peace agreement in January 2005 that included a power sharing deal with the government of Omar al-Bashir. The White House said Bush and Kiir would discuss the status of the implementation of that agreement, which marks its fourth anniversary next week.

The agreement "continues to face serious challenges in the lead up to national elections in 2009," the White House said in a statement.

The United States has backed a UN Security Council plan to deploy peacekeepers to Sudan's Darfur region to bring an end to five years of fighting that has left more than
200,000 people dead and forced more than 1 million to flee. But Khartoum has blocked extensive deployment.

Bush has characterized the violence in Darfur as genocide and enacted sanctions against Sudanese officials and generals believed responsible for supporting the conflict through Janjaweed militias.

Peace talks have stalled because of continued attacks by the Janjaweed and the refusal of some rebels leaders to join the negotiations. (dpa)