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UNITED NATIONS - Frustrated by Sudan's strong opposition to UN peacekeepers in Darfur, the United Nations considered on Wednesday a hybrid African Union-UN force as a way to get around Khartoum's objections.
Such a force could bolster the under-financed and ill-equipped African Union force now in Darfur, which Sudan has accepted, with non-African troops, communications gear and logistical support channeled through the United Nations, UN officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
One way to win approval from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir might be to put the force under an AU commander who would report to both the African Union and the UN special envoy for Sudan, they said.
With conditions on the ground deteriorating, there was a need for the United Nations "to work urgently with the Sudanese government and other parties concerned to find a way out of the impasse which exists today," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters on Wednesday.
"We are focusing on getting into Darfur an effective force, strengthening the African Union force that is there, giving them all the support that they need," Annan said.
In his conversations with Bashir, the Sudanese president had already accepted a bolstering of the AU force with outside resources and support personnel, Annan told reporters.
Violence is on the increase in Darfur, where some 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million driven from their homes in a conflict that has raged since 2003.
The fighting pits mostly non-Arab rebels against troops from the Arab-dominated Khartoum government and Arab militia known as Janjaweed blamed for widespread rape and plunder.
The UN Security Council in August approved deployment of as many as 22,000 peacekeepers to Darfur. But Bashir has resisted intense international pressure to let in UN troops, arguing that would be like inviting Western powers to recolonize his country.
The goal of devising a hybrid force was to get Bashir to agree to what troops, equipment and support were needed and only then worry about what to call it, the UN officials said.
The Security Council has already approved UN support staff and $22 million of equipment for the AU troops and the United Nations now wants to go beyond that to ensure an effective force is in place by year's end, Annan said.
With Khartoum steadfastly blocking a UN force, "what we need is another plan. And the other plan, it seems to me, is to concentrate on what is needed on the ground," a senior British official said in London on Wednesday.
"We need to sit down with the president and say, 'Look, can we agree the following sort of operation?' And only then decide how you badge it," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
- REUTERS
