US Congress delegation to Sudan for talks on Darfur, peace agreement

Feb 16, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A high-level delegation from the US Congress will be arriving in the country on Saturday 18 February, to push forward the efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis peacefully, and hastening the implementation of the peace agreement.

According to the Khartoum based Al-Ray al-Amm, the delegation, during the two-day visit, would meet a number of officials in the country, before heading to southern Darfur to assess the humanitarian conditions of those affected by the war in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday genocide was continuing in Sudan’s Darfur region and she urged the African Union to accept the help of U.N. peacekeepers to stop the atrocities.

The United States currently holds the presidency of the U.N. Security Council and Rice said she hoped to get through a resolution for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur to replacethe AU force there.

“The hold-up right now is that the African Union has not requested it and people are reluctant to do so without African Union backing,” Rice told the House of Representatives International Relations Committee.

She said the United States was working closely with the AU to get this issue resolved. Sudan also has to give its permission for U.N. troops to go there.

Meanwhile, NATO affirmed that it would not send any forces to the region, but would help in training programmes and the deployment of soldiers.

In Brussels, a high-level diplomat ruled out that NATO would send forces to Darfur after the transfer of the AU mission to the UN.

(ST)