EU's Solana - Sudan too restrictive on UN role

BRUSSELS, Mar 9 (Reuters) European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana today said that Sudan was still setting too restrictive conditions for the United Nations to take over a peacekeeping mission in its troubled Darfur region.

After a second meeting in 24 hours with Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, Solana told Reuters he could not guarantee that the African Union would agree tomorrow to hand over the failing operation to UN control.

Solana held a day of intensive talks with Taha and senior African Union, UN and US officials yesterday to try to persuade Sudan to accept a more robust UN mission to stop the killing in the western region.

Taha said Sudan could consider an unspecified UN role if peace talks with rebels being held in the Nigerian capital Abuja yielded a political settlement to the conflict. But Solana said that was too limited.

''That goes a little bit too far, because that means he only will accept after the Abuja talks have given a result, but we cannot risk not to start with the planning if necessary in case the Abuja talks take longer,'' Solana told Reuters.

The AU currently has some 7,000 poorly equipped troops in Darfur, an area the size of France, but it has been unable to stop the killings in which tens of thousands of people have died and 2 million have fled their homes in the last three years.

UN officials say Sudan has sent diplomats across Africa over the last two weeks to lobby against handing over control of the peacekeeping mission to the United Nations.

The AU is due to discuss the issue at a meeting in Addis Ababa tomorrow.

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