Kampala — NORWAY has told NGOs involved in the peace talks between the Government and the Lord's Resistance Army to stop "foreign shopping" for venues and mediators.

"It is wrong to do any kind of foreign shopping for the shift of the venue and mediator of the ongoing peace talks," visiting Norwegian deputy minister for foreign affairs, Raymond Johansen, said while touring Te-Tugu IDP camp in Gulu on Sunday.

"I want to urge the different NGOs and governments to stop this kind of foreign shopping to say: move the venue to Nairobi, Cape Town or elsewhere, as this will not bring both parties together," the minister told journalists.

Johansen added that the Norwegian government, which has a lot of experience with peace talks, shall not enter into "such games".

President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday also blamed NGOs for the stalemate in the peace talks.

"The President attributed the new position by LRA to NGOs that are giving them money, adding that the more they delay, the more money they get," a statement from the Press Secretary of the President yesterday read.

Museveni was giving an update of the peace process to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Don MacKinnon, on the eve of the 8th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa yesterday.

According to the statement, Museveni ruled out new mediators but added that, "if the Kony group feels it wants them (new mediators), those people can be part of the Juba team."

He explained to MacKinnon that "new mediators would mean their going back to learn the problems of northern Uganda" while "the Sudanese team knows those problems already."

Earlier yesterday, the LRA delegation told The New Vision that they had sent their request for a change of venue and mediator to Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. They expect Kibaki to present their case at the AU summit.

"We are waiting for the AU summit to pass. We believe he (Kibaki) is making consultations with regional leaders. We expect something to come out in days to come," Obonyo Olweny, the spokesman for the LRA delegation to the Juba peace talks, said.

Olweny added that the LRA also asked the East-African body, IGAD, to convene an urgent meeting to find a solution not only for the venue of the talks but also for the security of LRA members in Sudan.