No agreement on UN force in Darfur

Talks between a Security Council delegation and Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir on Tuesday centred on the role of the United Nations in resolving the Darfur conflict, but failed to reach a consensus on the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.

"We had a busy programme. We had a very good and long session with President Bashir, as a well as a long session with the minister of foreign affairs [Lam Akol]," Emyr Jones Parry of the United Kingdom told reporters on Tuesday evening in Khartoum.

It was the first time the Council had come to the Sudanese capital for face-to-face meetings with Sudanese authorities. Although the talks were constructive, a decision on the deployment of a UN force in the volatile western Sudanese Darfur region was not reached.

Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim told reporters his government would review the issue after a joint UN and African Union military assessment mission this week.

During the discussions, the delegation stressed the importance of a full and rapid implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), signed between the Sudanese government and the main rebel faction on 5 May.

Representatives from all 15 member countries are on the Security Council mission, most of them at the ambassadorial level. They are due to visit the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Darfur and Chad, where hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees are living in camps.

"I think we have explained why the last [Security Council] resolution was adopted under Chapter Seven [of the UN Charter, which authorises the use of force], and we have reinforced that we have come in spirit of partnership, of respecting fully the sovereignty – the territorial integrity - of Sudan," Parry added.

Meanwhile, international donors are expected to meet in Brussels next month to raise additional financing to extend the 7,000-strong AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur until September. The conference, to be hosted by the European Union, would also establish a plan for the reconstruction of Darfur and the gradual return of more than 2 million displaced people.