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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The African Union announced Tuesday that Sudan has agreed to allow up to 19,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, but skeptical Western diplomats said the African nation has put forth conditions that may present insurmountable obstacles.
Said Djinnit, the AU's top peace and security official, said the agreement to expand the peacekeeping force was reached during two days of talks between the AU, the United Nations and Sudan in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The U.N. and Western governments have been pressing Sudan for months to accept a U.N. plan for a larger "hybrid" force of U.N. and AU peacekeepers in place of the 7,000-strong AU force now in Darfur. The ill-equipped and underfunded AU force has been unable to stop four years of warfare that have left more than 200,000 dead.
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