UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending two high-level officials to Sudan to press for a pre-deployment team for a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Darfur.
Chief U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday Annan's special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi are expected to begin talks in Khartoum Tuesday or Wednesday.
"They will discuss what role the United Nations will play in Darfur in the implementation of the peace agreement and they're part of our preparation for the proposed transition," Dujarric said. The U.N. force is to take over from the undermanned African Union mission following a May 5 peace agreement between the government and one of Darfur's rebel groups.
Khartoum has not yet given the green light for an assessment team to prepare for the peacekeeping force in its strife-torn western region.
"We're very much aware of the timeframe imposed by the Security Council as is the Sudanese Government and we're trying to move things along as quickly as possible," the spokesman added, referring to Tuesday's resolution calling for deployment of a joint African Union-U.N. assessment team within one week to prepare for a U.N. peacekeeping operation.
Annan has already written to Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir seeking support for a stronger U.N. force to replace the 7,000-member AU mission deployed in Darfur, where fighting between pro-government militias and rebels has killed thousands of people and uprooted two million more in the last three years.
Annan has not spoken to President Bashir, but in the last few days conferred by phone with Vice President Ali Osman Taha and a special adviser to the president.
