US hopes Sudan would agree to a UN force in Darfur

The US Department Of State spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday that the US is hoping the Sudan government would agree to a UN force in Darfur.

He said that Sudan has indicated it would agree to such a force if a peace agreement was reached in Darfur, and said that the US hoped that Sudan would follow up this, now that a peace agreement has been reached.

McCormack said "what they had said previously, before the Abuja talks, is they had said that -- when this topic came up -- if there's an agreement in Abuja, a political agreement, then we would agree to a UN force coming in. Well, guess what? We have a Darfur peace agreement in Abuja so we would expect that the Khartoum government would follow through on the previous commitment."

The partial peace agreement reached regarding Darfur seems to be in trouble even as it was signed, and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for immediate help to the African Union to deal with the situation in Darfur.

The US statement yesterday came following a resolution by the UN Security Council for a mission to Darfur to study the feasibility of such a force.

McCormack said "We welcome the passage of the Security Council resolution. As you know, it calls upon the government in Khartoum to allow in a joint AU-UN assessment mission as a way to get down the road to a UN mission that would complement the AMIS force."

Previously, the UN Security Council issued a resolution in support of the African Union resolution, which said that Sudan must agree to such a UN force if the African Union is to support such a decision. The African Union had issued a resolution in support of a UN forces to Sudan in several month time, but only if the Sudan government agrees to such a UN force.