Annan calls Bashir for Sudan's approval to UN assessment team

As two United Nations envoys arrived in Khartoum for talks with Sudanese officials in a bid to gain access to Darfur for a UN team assessing conditions for a possible peacekeeping operation there, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today spoke with the country's President seeking support for the deployment.

During his phone conversation with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Annan "told him he hoped to see the UN assessment mission to be dispatched as soon as possible and sought the cooperation and support of the Sudanese Government to that end," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on 16 May under Chapter VII of the Charter, which allows for enforcement measures, calling for such a team to be deployed within a week. So far, Sudan has not given a green light for the assessment team to deploy.

This UN resolution is in violation of previous Security Council statements and the African Union resolutions which said Sudan must approve any UN force to Sudan, which this latest resolution aims to circumvent.