Talks on the pending issues in the signed peace agreement would resume on Monday in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, a spokesman for the South Sudanese government said.

The IGAD Council of Ministers decided to extend the talks on the remaining issues between the warring parties in Khartoum until 19 August.

In a statement to state media on Sunday, South Sudan’s information minister Michael Makuei Lueth said the  parties would resume talks on the outstanding issues on Monday before the implementation matrix could be drafted.

Makuei further said their talks would focus on the composition of the judiciary reform committee and the constitutional amendments committee.“These are very minor issues because we disagreed on the composition, so it is an issue of figures only,” he said.

He explained that additional five ministries, implementation matrix and powers of the president and his five deputies will be discussed. 

“Of course these are new positions which have been created and as such there is need to revisit powers and competencies of all these. So these are the outstanding issues, and if we agree on all these, then the agreement is over,” he said.

Lueth noted that the talks on the review of several outstanding issues in the peace deal have run behind the schedule, pointing out that they will work hard to meet the deadline.

The government official expressed optimism that they will agree on the pending issues within the next two days.