U.N., Sudan Agree On "Urgency" Of Darfur

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that he and Sudan's president have agreed on the need for a quick decision to deploy a new United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in the Darfur region.

Ban told The Associated Press in an interview that he spoke to President Omar al-Bashir by phone this week about getting U.N. troops and equipment into Darfur to beef up the 7,000-strong AU force. The peacekeepers have been unable to end the four-year conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

Al-Bashir agreed in November to a three-phase U.N. plan to strengthen the AU force. But he has since backed off the deployment of the third and final phase — a 20,000-strong "hybrid" U.N.-AU force, saying he would only allow a larger African force with technical and logistical support from the United Nations.

"We agreed on the necessity and importance and urgency of making swift agreement on (the) hybrid operation, and we decided to first of all have technical consultation as soon as possible — as soon as our proposal is ready," Ban said of his conversation with al-Bashir.

This week, President Bush delivered a final warning to al-Bashir that he must take quick, concrete steps to halt bloodshed in Darfur or face tough new U.S. sanctions.

U.S. officials said he held off announcing the sanctions after direct appeals from Ban.

"I really wanted to have some political space," the secretary-general told reporters earlier, "so that I could carry on my consultations on the hybrid operation, as well as the political dialogue process."

After five months of stalling, the Sudanese president recently gave the go-ahead for the second phase — a "heavy support package" with 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel along with six attack helicopters. The first phase, a light support package including U.N. police advisers, civilian staff and additional resources and technical support, already has been sent to Darfur.

The secretary-general cautioned that there was no agreement yet from the Sudanese to deploy the hybrid force.

"I'm making some progress, even small progress," he said. "First and foremost, we need to agree on full deployment of this hybrid (force) as soon as possible."

Ban said the first step is for the United Nations and the African Union to agree on a proposal for the hybrid operation that then will be sent to Sudan for the government to consider.

"Then African Union, United Nations and Sudanese government will be able to have an agreement on this hybrid operation," he said.

But the secretary-general stressed that an agreement is needed not only on the military track but on the political track.

The undermanned and under-equipped AU force has been unable to stop fighting between the government and ethnic African rebels. The violence has only increased since a peace deal last year signed by the government and one rebel group. Other rebel groups rejected the deal and continued fighting.

While pressing for deployment of the hybrid force, Ban said efforts must continue to reach a political settlement of the Darfur conflict and fully implement a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between Sudan's mostly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south.

U.N. envoy Jan Eliasson and AU envoy Salim Ahmed Salim are trying to get all the parties to the Darfur conflict to the negotiating table, Ban said, indicating they are making progress.

"We are not there yet," he said. "There are still some more rebel groups that have not been contacted, and who have not joined this political process."