German Defense mininster: Ready to send 50 observers o Sudan

BERLIN, Mar 5, 2005 (AP) — Germany’s top defense official said in comments released Saturday that the country is considering sending 50 military observes to a planned United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Sudan .

The U.N. Security Council is considering a resolution drafted by the United States to send peacekeepers to help monitor a peace deal between the government and rebels in southern Sudan – an agreement that ended Africa’s longest-running conflict after 21 years. U.N. officials envision dispatching some 10,000 peacekeepers and 750 observers.

“If it comes to a military resolution, we are ready to take part with up to 50 military observers,” Defense Minister Peter Struck told the BZ am Sonntag newspaper. He said he has asked Austria to assist Germany’s effort, and that he expected the mission could take up to six years.

The resolution would only allow the peacekeepers to help African Union troops restore peace in a separate conflict in Sudan ‘s western Darfur province if U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan approves.