Nigeria's latest plan to end militant attacks in the volatile Niger River delta that have cut oil production to a 20-year low appears to have collapsed.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the plan during a visit to Nigeria earlier this month, in hopes of bringing some semblance of peace to a region that is a major US source of foreign oil.

But the delta's main militant group over the weekend dismissed the three-week-old plan as "a charade" and vowed to resume attacks after a cease-fire expires Sept. 15.

The plan, which offered amnesty to any militant who laid down his arms during a 60-day period, began with fanfare three weeks ago, but it now seems unlikely to achieve anything more than a brief respite from the violence.

Experts and activists say the plan doesn't address any of the rebels' key demands: jobs, economic development and a greater share of oil wealth for the delta, where millions live in extreme poverty while Western energy giants and Nigerian politicians pocket billions of dollars annually in oil revenues.

Critics call it a half-hearted measure by a government desperate to shore up a listing industry that's contributed to instability in world energy markets. Nigerian crude exports have fallen by nearly 40 percent from 2006 amid an escalating militant campaign of sabotage, oil siphoning, kidnappings of foreign oil workers and confrontations with security forces.

"It looks like the bottom line is to rein in the violence to allow the oil production and export to continue, and then get back to business as usual," said Nnamdi K. Obasi, a Nigeria-based analyst for the International Crisis Group research agency. "People in the delta say this doesn't respond to their demands."

Off to a good start?

Nigerian officials insist the program is off to "a good start," and media reports over the weekend said that militants turned over hundreds of automatic rifles and rocket-launchers. Several high-profile militia leaders have accepted the pardon, even meeting Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua in a ceremony here in the capital.

Two weeks ago, however, gunmen reportedly tied to the main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, bombed a major oil pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell. The attack signaled that the vast, decentralized militias — with thousands of fighters and countless weapons scattered throughout the delta's mazelike creeks — were unconvinced by the peace plan.

In a statement Saturday, MEND denounced the militants who accepted amnesty and said that it had already replaced at least one key commander.

"Things are actually getting worse," said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, a New York-based risk consultancy. "(The pipeline attack) may indicate that with the deepening organizational disarray of the militias, more random attacks on all classes of energy facilities throughout the delta may be coming."

The Obama administration has a major stake in what happens in turbulent Nigeria, the fifth-largest US oil supplier. Besides the two-decade-long insurgency in the southern delta, where millions live without steady power and clean water despite the staggering oil wealth, Yar'Adua's government is also facing growing dissatisfaction in the Muslim-dominated north ahead of elections scheduled for 2011.

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