Juba — The Southern Sudan Cabinet has held a special session to discuss Uganda rebel leader Joseph Kony's rejection of Dr Riek Machar as the mediator in the talks between the Uganda government and the Lord's Resistance Army.

The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Machar, started at the President's Office at 10am today in Juba. He is the vice-president of the government of Southern Sudan.

Government spokesman Samson Kwaje, told the Sunday Monitor (our sister paper in Uganda) that Machar would brief the Cabinet on the talks.

But another government official said the meeting would discuss if LRA was justified to reject Machar as mediator.

On Thursday, LRA second-in-command Vincent Otti announced that his rebel group was rejecting Machar on the grounds of partiality.

The rebels are particularly suspicious of the mediator's demands that Otti show up in Juba for the peace talks, to resume next week because the next stage was so serious it needed an LRA leader who can make real decisions.

"Why is Riek making my presence in Juba a condition?" Otti said. "There must be something hidden in that after all, there are no guarantees that I won't be arrested."

The International Criminal Court has arrest warrants for Kony, Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya and Dominic Ongwen. The court wants Uganda, Sudan or Congo to arrest the LRA top commanders and hand them over to face crimes of war charges at The Hague.

The warrants have sent shivers down the spine of the LRA leadership, which is uncomfortable with leaving the safe confines of the large and thick Garamba forest in northeastern D.R. Congo. The area has been the LRA hideout since October, last year.

Otti said that if Machar did not change his attitude, "we shall look for another mediator."

The Uganda government said yesterday that it had confidence in the Southern Sudan's mediation of the peace talks.

The government's chief negotiator, Internal Affairs minister Ruhakana Rugunda, said Kampala had the full support for and confidence in Machar's mediation.

"The government delegation is ready to leave for Juba any time," Dr Rugunda told journalists in Kampala. "We are simply waiting for the chief mediator (Machar) to call us."

A Sudanese official said his Cabinet could take drastic measures against LRA if it continued on its current path.

"In the event that we cannot save the situation, the Cabinet may come up with an order expelling LRA from our land, since they are not interested in the talks," the official said.

The official added that that Rugunda called Juba yesterday to reassure Machar of Uganda's support.

The Cabinet meeting comes a day after LRA issued a unilateral ceasefire, an otherwise goodwill gesture towards the talks, but one marred by Otti's insistence on not appearing in Juba.

"I, Lt-Gen Vincent Otti, second-in-command of the LRA, by the order of Gen Joseph Kony, chairman of the LRA High Command, do hereby declare a unilateral cessation of hostilities," Otti told BBC yesterday.

"I order all our field commanders to, with immediate effect, cease all forms of hostilities against the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces' positions and others."

The government in Kampala said it was not aware of the LRA move.

It had, however, been wary of LRA's ceasefire pronouncements before.