Sudan set to agree AU mandate extension

KHARTOUM - Sudan is expected to agree to an extended African Union peacekeeping mandate in Darfur when African foreign ministers meet in New York this week, a presidential adviser was quoted as saying on Monday.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is under pressure to accept UN peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur when the AU mandate in western Sudan expires on September 30.

Britain's Guardian newspaper quoted presidential adviser Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani as saying Sudan may allow AU troops to remain in Darfur past the deadline with more help from the West.

"It is likely we will arrive at an extension of the African Union mandate when the ministers meet in New York. There seems to be a common interest. It will give time for all sides to find a way out of this," Atabani said.

Atabani said Sudan wanted to explore what it called "African Union Plus", whereby AU peacekeepers remain in Darfur but get help in the form of helicopters and surveillance technology from Western states.

Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told a news conference in Khartoum Sudan wanted the AU to be able to better implement a peace deal signed in Nigeria in May with one rebel faction.

"We call for strengthening efforts of the African Union. We call for strengthening efforts aimed at implementing the Abuja agreement," he said.

The 7000 AU troops have failed to stop the violence which has killed an estimated 200,000 people and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

The United Nations wants to take control of the mission with 20,000 UN peacekeepers who would more aggressively enforce the oft-violated ceasefire in the region.

But Bashir, as recently as Saturday, said under no circumstances would he allow the UN troops into Darfur.

Bashir has likened a UN presence to an invasion force bent on regime change in Khartoum. Analysts say the government might also be concerned UN troops could arrest suspects eventually named in warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday strongly urged China to use its influence to persuade Sudan to allow a UN force to deploy.

Rice made her appeal to Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"He (Li) said that he would work to persuade the Sudanese to comply with UN Security Council resolutions," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

China, which buys Sudanese oil and sells it arms, abstained along with Russia and Qatar on last month's Security Council resolution authorising a UN deployment in Darfur pending the government's consent.

The African Union Peace and Security Council had been scheduled to discuss Darfur on Monday in New York, but an AU diplomat there told Reuters it was delayed until Wednesday to give African heads of state a chance to attend.

Bashir was due to address the meeting. AU foreign ministers will be holding informal consultations over the next two days to prepare for the summit.

Years of fighting in Sudan's west have forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes for overcrowded refugee camps with little prospect of returning to the life they once knew.

Darfur villages and fields have been decimated since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in February 2003 to protest what they called marginalisation and neglect by leaders in Khartoum.

Sudan's finance minister said in Singapore on Monday that money earmarked by the United Nations for peacekeepers would be better spent on development in Darfur.

"People have focused on bringing the peacekeepers to Darfur, when we think what Darfur needs is not peacekeepers. ... What Darfur needs most is resources for water, resources for schools, for hospitals," Sudanese Finance Minister Lual Deng told a news conference at International Monetary Fund-World Bank meetings.

Deng said the government was jointly assessing Darfur's needs with the World Bank, the United Nations and the African Development Bank.

Violence has increased in Darfur since the May peace agreement. Aid workers say they have less access than at any time since the conflict began.

Lord Triesman, the British Foreign Office minister for Africa, told reporters in New York governments were headed for "a tipping point" in their talks on how to address the crisis.

He said rebel groups in north Darfur were splitting into smaller factions, with "wholly unrealistic objectives" and the Khartoum government was also violating the Abuja accord by launching raids with helicopter gunships.

"We are beyond the point where we should be very concerned with saving face. We should be concerned with saving lives."

- REUTERS