The UN should beef up African Union (AU) forces in Darfur with troops and logistical support, even if Sudan does not allow a full UN operation, a senior UN envoy said on Monday.
Sudan is expected to ask the African Union to stay in Darfur past its mandate, which expires on Sept. 30. But the African Union is strapped for cash and equipment and has not been able to stop killings, plunder and widespread rape in the lawless western region.
Jan Pronk, the UN envoy for Sudan, told the Security Council and reporters afterwards that rather than only continue confrontations with Khartoum leaders, who have firmly rejected a UN force, the focus should be on the African Union's force of 7,000.
"I think the government of Khartoum is quite willing to accept an African Union force, being led by the African Union with a lot of support from others," Pronk told reporters after his briefing to the UN Security Council.
"I think that would also imply boots on the ground," he said. "Try it. It is possible. But you have to talk. You have to negotiate."
Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told a news conference in Khartoum that Sudan wanted the AU to be able to better implement a peace deal signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in May between the government and 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.
Pronk, however, told the council that the Darfur Peace Agreement was nearly dead and prompted more fighting.
"It is in a coma. It ought to be under intensive care, but it isn't," he said.
He said a ceasefire commission, established under the pact, barely functioned, did not invite all rebel factions and prevented senior UN military and US officials from even speaking at the few meetings it managed to hold.
Meanwhile, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir is expected to address the African Union's Peace and Security Council today on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, along with other African leaders.
US President George W. Bush, under pressure from human rights groups and Congress, is expected to name Andrew Natsios, the former head of the US Agency for International Development, as a special envoy for Darfur, according to US officials and Senator Norm Coleman, who was visiting the UN.
The US and Denmark are organizing a ministerial meeting late on Friday on the crisis in Darfur among the 15 Security Council members plus Canada, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Rwanda, the Netherlands, Chad, Norway, Egypt and Algeria, diplomats said.
French President Jacques Chirac on Monday offered his ideas for relaunching the Middle East peace process during a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a spokesman said.
Chirac and Annan held a working dinner with French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and some of the UN chief's close aides on the eve of the UN General Assembly debate in New York, presidential spokesman Jerome Bonnafont told reporters.
Chirac outlined "his ideas concerning a relaunch of the Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative," said his spokesman.
But the French president was "very worried about the threat of a humanitarian catastrophe" in Darfur, said his spokesman.
Chirac said that in his speech to the UN General Assembly to be delivered yesterday, he would appeal for "the urgent deployment of a UN force to prevent this humanitarian catastrophe."
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