Khartoum has welcomed the new US approach on Sudan despite the fact that Washington still describes events in Darfur as genocide. 

On Monday, Barack Obama, the US president set out his new policy on Sudan.

Under the Bush administration the US imposed tough sanctions on Sudan, but presenting Obama's statement this week, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, suggested the administration may be open to engagement.

The policy says Sudan must seek a definitive end to conflict, human-rights abuses and genocide in Darfur, and the government must implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South to create the possibility of long-term peace.

To endure co-operation Clinton said the policy would include both incentives and disincentives.
 
Many believe that this move has now thrown the ball into the court of the Sudanese government.

Will Sudan be reponsive to the US demands? Under what conditions? And will this engagement approach work at all?

Inside Story presenter Hashem Ahelbarra is joined by Bona Malwal, the advisor to the Sudanese president and leader of the Democratic Forum, Abdelwahab al-Affendi, a senior research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy of the University of Westminster, and Alex de Waal, an expert on African affairs and a programme director at the Social Science Research Council.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Wednesday, October 21, 2009.