foreign secretary

Over the weekend, a US state department spokesperson told Reuters that Washington was in touch with the governments of India and Pakistan and wanted them to work towards a "responsible resolution", while the British foreign secretary David Lammy spoke to his counterparts in India and deputy prime minister in Pakistan.

On Tuesday evening Rubio spoke to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy about what he hoped would be "substantive and good technical meetings".

The talks - which UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy will also attend - form the highest level of transatlantic engagement about the war since February.

The announcement came as London hosted an high-level conference to mark the second anniversary of the conflict, where the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called for "a pathway to peace".

A high-level international conference is under way in London to find "a pathway to peace" in Sudan, in the words of one of the hosts, the UK's Foreign Secretary David Lammy.