Uganda rebel lawyers to meet with war crimes court

Lawyers for Ugandan rebels were to meet International Criminal Court officials on Monday to push the court to drop charges against their leader, which are a sticking point in talks to end the 21-year war.

Despite rapid progress in the past month at peace talks in Sudan, the Lord's Resistance Army rebels insist any final deal with Uganda's government be conditional on the ICC dropping war crimes' charges against leader Joseph Kony and two deputies.

That poses a serious dilemma for the fledgling ICC, set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court, which could be accused of bowing to politics if it drops the charges and wrecking peace talks if it does not.

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