CAIRO, Egypt – Qatar, building off its success in mediating Lebanon's intractable political deadlock, will host a reconciliation conference to end the devastating conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, a Qatari minister announced Tuesday.

In May, it brokered a deal between rival Lebanese factions that ended a two-year long political standoff. The latest bid reflects the tiny Gulf state's desire to continue such high profile efforts.

Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs, Ahmed Bin Abdallah al-Mahmoud, announced the plan after meetings at the Arab League in Cairo, a visit that came on the heels of his weeklong tour of Sudan.

Al-Mahmoud said consultations are under way to set a date for the conference, to be held in the Qatari capital, Doha. But he cautioned the gathering would need good preparation to succeed.

Past efforts to bring Sudanese rebels to a peace conference with the government have failed.

“We are working to prepare an appropriate ground for the conference to bring it to a success,” he told reporters in Cairo.

The Darfur conflict began in early 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination. Up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been chased from their homes since the fighting began.

The 22-member Arab League asked Qatar in July to spearhead a joint Arab effort to end the crisis.

The effort followed genocide charges raised against Sudan's President Omar el-Bashir by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

In Cairo, al-Mahmoud described the talks he held with Sudanese officials on the Qatari bid as “positive.”

Arabs hope that brokering a peace settlement in Darfur would halt the ICC's efforts to bring el-Bashir to justice. On Monday, the League said the genocide charges against Sudan's leader were not acceptable and undermine that country's sovereignty.

The United Nations and the African Union have welcomed Qatar's initiative for peace in Darfur. The two organizations have deployed some 9,000 peacekeepers in Darfur as part of a joint mission.

But Egypt said Sudan's neighbors should also play a key role in any initiative on Darfur.

“There should be coordination among different efforts and neighboring countries should be involved,” Hossam Zaki, spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry told the state MENA news agency.

So far, key Darfur rebel groups have rejected efforts to negotiate a deal with Khartoum unless the government stops its violence against civilians in the ravaged region. Many of the worst atrocities in the war have been blamed on the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads allied with the government.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has announced its own, national unity conference on Darfur, to be convened on Thursday in Khartoum.

Darfur's rebel groups have refused to attend that gathering.