Sudan open to talks on UN peacekeeping force – FM

May 8, 2006 (VIENNA) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol Ajawin said Monday his country is open for talks on a possible U.N. peacekeeping force for the Darfur region and he sought to counter perceptions such troops were unwanted in the area.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants Sudan to grant visas to a U.N. assessment team so it can visit Darfur and start planning for a U.N. force to take over from overstretched African Union troops.

Sudan’s government said Saturday that a peace accord signed Friday between the government and Darfur’s largest rebel group could open the way to a U.N. force, a step the government had previously resisted.

But Sudan has refused to allow the team to visit, potentially jeopardizing the end of a conflict that has killed at least 180,000 people in three years and displaced some 2 million

Ajawin spoke after meeting with Foreign Minister Ursula Plasnik of Austria, which presently holds the rotating EU presidency. Also participating in the talks was Foreign Minister Rodolphe Adada of Congo, representing the chairman of the African Union.

(ST/AP)