WASHINGTON (AFP) ??” The United States warmly welcomed a reprieve agreed to this week between hardline ethnic militant leaders in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta after a seven-year conflict that has left centurys dead and thousands homeless.

WASHINGTON (AFP) ??” The United States warmly welcomed a reprieve agreed to this week between hardline ethnic militant leaders in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta after a seven-year conflict that has left centurys dead and thousands homeless.

The State Department said the deal, reached upon Tuesday in the city of Warri through faction chiefs from the rival Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic form into groupss was "a very positive development" that should be built forward to improve the lives of all population in the region.

"We waiting under the possibility of fulfilment that the agreement will lead to increased peace and security in the Delta and that representatives from the local communities, management and private sector will work together to combat neediness and deprivation in the historically poor and volatile region," said Kurtis Cooper a department spokesman.

Some looker-ons have expressed scepticism that the peace effort will work, yet members of the Warri Ijaw-Itsekiri Grassroots Peace brow ...