Sudan set to agree AU mandate extension report

LONDON, Sep 18 (Reuters) Sudan is set to allow African Union peacekeepers to extend their mandate in Darfur when it expires at the end of this month, a Sudanese presidential adviser was quoted as saying today.

''It is likely we will arrive at an extension of the African Union mandate when the ministers meet in New York. There seems to be a common interest. It will give time for all sides to find a way out of this,'' Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, a senior presidential adviser, told Britain's Guardian newspaper.

The mandate for 7,000 poorly equipped and under-funded African Union troops is due to expire on September 30.

The United Nations wants to take control of the Darfur mission with 20,000 U N peacekeepers who would be able to more aggressively enforce an oft-violated ceasefire in western Sudan.

But Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has resisted the idea of U N troops deploying in Darfur, a region rent by violence since 2003 that has left tens of thousands of people dead and forced more than 2 million from their homes.

Atabani told the Guardian that Sudan wants to explore what it calls ''African Union Plus'', whereby AU troops remain in Darfur but get help in the form of helicopters and surveillance technology from Western states.

Sudan's president has said he does not want U N troops in his country as he fears western nations want to recolonise Africa's largest country and gain access to its oil wealth.

African Union foreign ministers are due to meet in New York on the sidelines of the U N General Assembly on Monday to discuss the Darfur situation.

REUTERS PB HT1400