Looking to unlock the crisis in war-torn Darfur, France won agreement from three African nations involved that they would not support armed rebel movements on each other's territories.
Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic made the commitment in a signed declaration on Thursday on the sidelines of an African summit that France hosted in the Riviera city of Cannes.
There were still no signs that Sudan was any closer to agreeing to a key international demand: that it accept the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur, its western region where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003.
However, French President Jacques Chirac's spokesman hailed the African nations' pledge and their call for continued UN and African Union involvement as an indication that they do not want the crisis to worsen.
"We hope that all those who took part in this meeting did so because they don't want the status quo to establish itself," spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said.
France and other powers fear the Darfur violence is spilling over and could engulf the entire region. Tensions have mounted as Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic accused one another of supporting each other's rebels.
The mere fact that presidents Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, Idriss Deby of Chad and Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic met was in itself seen as noteworthy.
"There is suspicion between the three countries and a clear willingness from African countries, in particular the African Union, and the international community to dispel it," Bonnafont said.
Whether their pledge would have real significance was open to question, as Deby and al-Bashir signed a similar agreement a year ago to normalize diplomatic relations and deny refuge to each other's rebel groups.
Chad has accused Sudan of backing rebels in the country.
The Central African Republic also has alleged that Sudan supported a rebellion there.
Sudan denied both charges and has accused Chad of backing rebels in Darfur.
Chirac, host of the Cannes summit that brought together some 40 African heads of state and government, earlier on Thursday called Darfur a humanitarian disaster and urged Sudan and "all the belligerents" to accept peacekeepers.
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