NATO ready for small-scale Darfur presence

SOFIA, Apr 28: NATO is ready to increase assistance in Sudan's Darfur region but alliance ministers agreed today that any presence should be limited and only in support of African or UN efforts.

In its first operation on the African continent, NATO has already provided training and transport to African Union troops struggling to quell the violence there and some nations such as the United States want the alliance to engage more strongly.

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said NATO should take on a larger role in Darfur.

''Everyone recognises that the AU mission, while it has been successful thus far, is not robust enough to deal with the continued violence in Darfur, and particularly the problems that are emerging in western Darfur,'' she told a news conference at a NATO ministers' meeting in Bulgaria.

But other NATO members are cautious, with the Sudanese government resisting international involvement and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appealing to anti-West sentiment by accusing it of launching a crusade in the region.

''We are in the early planning stages for what we can offer next but the consensus is that the NATO footprint should be as limited as possible,'' said one observer of the foreign ministers' talks in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

A senior U.S. State Department official acknowledged that a NATO presence was politically complicated. ''We are assessing what more we can do. There's a lot of stars that have to align beyond the transatlantic community.'' No direct combat is envisaged for the alliance but it is ready to help in areas such as training, intelligence, military communications and transport. One proposal being discussed by NATO planners would involve up to 400 trainers on the ground, a number which many European allies consider too high.

The African Union's 7,000 poorly equipped troops in Sudan's western province of Darfur have been unable to stop violence in which tens of thousands of people have died and millions have fled in the last three years.

Any NATO deployment would support the existing AU mission and subsequently a larger proposed U.N. force.

But the plans are effectively on ice for the moment, with the AU yet to formally request further NATO help and the Sudanese government objecting to a U.N. force, particularly one that has U.S.

or European military personnel.

U.S. officials said without Sudan's government approval an expanded NATO rule would be impossible.

Sudan is accused of arming militias drawn mainly from Arab tribes to crush a rebellion in Darfur.

Those Arab militia, backed by the Sudanese government, have terrorized the region over the past three years, murdering and raping civilians, burning villages and driving more than 2 million people into camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.

Peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, mediated by the AU are facing a Sunday deadline to reach a deal. Mediators presented an 85-page draft peace settlement on Tuesday and a Sudanese government negotiator said it represented a possible basis for a deal, although tough negotiations still lay ahead.

REUTERS