Egypt offers troops for Darfur peacekeeping mission

CAIRO, Apr 28 (Reuters) Egypt has informed the United Nations of its readiness to contribute several hundred troops as part of a UN support package to bolster a struggling African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan's war torn Darfur region.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement received today that Egypt had offered to contribute over 500 infantry, as well as between 200 and 300 signal and transport corps, 100 observers and 30 officers.

The statement added that Egypt was willing to consider contributing additional troops.

Sudan recently agreed to a ''heavy support package'' for the African Union troops in Darfur that includes some 3,500 military and police personnel.

But Khartoum has not approved a ''hybrid'' UN-AU force of more than 20,000 troops and police, which the council first authorised last August.

A 2006 peace agreement signed in Abuja, Nigeria between the government and one rebel group has failed to stop the violence in Darfur, where the United Nations says around 200,000 have died and 2.5 million displaced since the conflict began in 2003.

Aboul Gheit said in the statement Egypt believed the expansion of the peacekeeping force should coincide with Darfur's non-signatory rebels acceding to the Abuja accord and an end to fighting, to facilitate the peacekeepers' work on the ground.

Britain and the United States have been drawing up a sanctions resolution if Sudan continues to balk at UN demands, although no date has been set for its introduction.

Sudan says only 9,000 people have died in Darfur since the conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect.

REUTERS JS ND2128