Egypt offers to double monitors in Darfur to 200

CAIRO, April 20 (Reuters) – Egypt plans to double the size of its contingent in the African Union (AU) monitoring force in western Sudan’s Darfur region, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Wednesday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made the pledge at a summit meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday with the leaders of Sudan, Ethiopia and Nigeria, he told reporters.

“President Mubarak made clear that Egypt is prepared and has a definite intention to reinforce the Egyptian presence in the monitoring force by doubling the number of Egyptians, which now stands at about 100 police and military,” Aboul Gheit said.

“It has been decided to double that or more,” he added. He did not say when they would go to Darfur but said that Egypt was willing to act as soon as possible.

More than 2,000 AU troops are deployed in Darfur to monitor a shaky April 2004 ceasefire between non-Arab rebels and the Arab-dominated central government.

But they do not have a peacekeeping mandate and have limited powers to protect civilians in Darfur, where more than 2 million people have fled their homes since a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups broke out in early 2003.

Aboul Gheit said Egypt felt that the AU commission was acting too slowly on Darfur and had pressed for faster action.

“The Nigerian President (Olusegun Obasanjo), as chairman of the African Union, gave a commitment to move towards inviting African states to reinforce the African presence on the ground,” the minister added.

The African leaders agreed that legal experts would go to Sudan to advise the government on how to handle the U.N. Security Council demand that it hand over alleged war criminals for trial in the International Criminal Court, he said.

The Sudanese government has rejected the demand and says it will not hand over any suspects for trial outside Sudan.