Sudanese parties have agreed to resume talks on the formation of a transitional sovereign council, Ethiopia's special envoy to Sudan said on Tuesday.

Sudan's military council also agreed to release political prisoners as a confidence-building measure, special envoy Mahmoud Dirir told reporters in Khartoum.

Talks between the ruling military council and an alliance of protest and opposition groups had collapsed after the dispersal of a protest sit-in on June 3. 

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.