Sudan's president accepts UN plan to bolster force in Darfur

UNITED NATIONS -- Sudan's president said he accepts a UN package to help end the escalating violence in Darfur and is ready to discuss a cease-fire, according to a letter circulated yesterday.

President Omar al-Bashir said in the letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that Sudan is ready to immediately implement two recent agreements endorsing a three-step UN plan to strengthen the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union force in the vast western region of the country.

Bashir also dropped his opposition to a hybrid AU-UN force that would be deployed as the final step in the peace plan.

UN Security Council diplomats, however, cautioned that Bashir remains opposed to any large-scale deployment of UN troops and has backtracked on past agreements. The letter also leaves unresolved the size and command of the hybrid force.

Bashir rejects a Security Council resolution adopted in August that called for more than 20,000 UN peacekeepers to replace the AU force, which has been unable to stop the violence, which has killed more than 200,000 people and left 2.5 million displaced in Darfur since February 2003.

The Sudanese president also has previously opposed the deployment of UN troops as part of a hybrid force, insisting it would compromise Sudan's sovereignty.

In his letter to Annan, however, Bashir said the conclusions of a Nov. 16 meeting of key Sudanese and international diplomats in Ethiopia and a Nov. 30 AU summit in Nigeria, where the hybrid force was endorsed, "constitute a viable framework for peaceful settlement to the conflict in Darfur."

Bashir said Sudan agrees that implementation of the first two phases of the UN support package for the AU troops in Darfur should start "as scheduled."

The first phase would provide the AU force with scores of military officers, UN police, and other international staff members, as well as much-needed military equipment, according to a UN report last month.

A second, larger package would include the deployment of several hundred UN military, police, and civilian personnel, along with substantial aviation and logistical assets.

Bashir said the size of the hybrid AU-UN force should be determined by both organizations. Bashir's letter came after several telephone conversations between the Sudanese president and Annan and a letter from the secretary general delivered by an envoy.