Myanmar peace talks to resume

Peace talks between the Myanmar government and ethnic leaders will resume this week despite escalating clashes in the country's Shan state, officials said Friday.

The Union Peace-making Work Committee (UPWC) and the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), negotiating on behalf of 16 armed ethnic groups, will meet at the Myanmar Peace Centre here Dec 22-23, the Myanmar Times reported.

They will seek to build on months of work by technical teams from both sides that have resulted in informal agreements on many contentious points in a nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA).

The signing of the ceasefire would pave the way for a political dialogue and, ultimately ending the Myanmar's ethnic conflicts.

Since the end of 2013, the government and ethnic leaders have held six rounds of talks toward a nationwide ceasefire accord, but a final agreement is yet to be reached.

The most recent formal talks, held in Yangon in September, had proved inconclusive.

The unsolved issues include the establishment of a union peace talks committee, the introduction of a federal system, the reorganisation of the military in line with federal principles, a framework for political dialogue and the introduction of a military code of conduct.