|
 UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will pressure Sudan's president next week to speed up the peace process in Darfur, which has been delayed by months of wrangling over the makeup of a larger peacekeeping force, U.N. officials said Tuesday.
Ban, on his first overseas trip as head of the world body, will meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Ethiopia. The meeting could be crucial to pushing through a three-phase U.N. plan to beef up the 7,000-member AU force that is struggling to maintain peace in the vast desert region.
Al-Bashir has refused to allow U.N. peacekeeping troops to replace the beleaguered African force in Darfur. Last month, he appeared to endorse the new U.N. plan that culminates with the deployment of a 22,000-strong "hybrid" AU-U.N. force, but Sudanese officials have since wavered on that support.
|