No immediate plans for British troops in Darfur: Blair

LONDON, July 22 (AFP) — Prime Minister Tony Blair denied as “premature” a report that he had drawn up plans to send British troops to Sudan, where a bloody conflict has engulfed the western region of Darfur.

Blair had asked officials to look at all possible options for action in Sudan, including the possible despatch of the military, a British government official was quoted as saying in the Guardian newspaper.

However Blair rejected this, telling a regular press conference that “we’re not at the stage yet”.

“We are working very closely with the African Union and the EU and what we need to do in the short term is get the government of Sudan to take the measures necessary to control these militias and to make sure that the aid and assistance gets through,” Blair said.

“Now we rule nothing out, but we’re not at the stage yet (of sending troops) … because we have a strategy that we implement now, he said, adding that Western nations had a “moral responsibility” to take action.