Go ahead for more Darfur troops

Foreign troops are to help establish security

The African Union (AU) has agreed to increase its military force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region from under 400 to more than 3,000.

The organisation hopes they will be deployed in Darfur by early next month for up to one year.

However the agreed rise is less than the 4,500 hoped for by the AU chairman - Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria - to stem more than 18 months of violence.

An estimated 70,000 people have died since the Darfur conflict broke out.

Meanwhile, rebels say they want peace talks with the government to be postponed.

They had been due to resume on Wednesday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Armed

Sudan has already said it will accept an expanded AU force, but is opposed to any attempt to change its role to one of peacekeeping.

AFRICAN UNION FORCE Armed protection troops: 1,700 Unarmed troops: 641 Civilian police: 815 Civilian staff: 164 Total no: 3,320 Observers: 450 Q&A: Darfur conflict

Some 2,341 military personnel will be charged with guaranteeing the security in the region and reining in the Janjaweed militia blamed for displacing some 1.4 million people.

According to the BBC's Mohammed Adow in Addis Ababa, out of these troops 1,700 will be armed to protect 450 observers, up from 80 observers already on the ground.

The troops' exact rules of engagement were not specified, our correspondent says.

Some 300 Rwandan and Nigerian unarmed troops are already in Darfur.

Meanwhile, 815 civilian police will be tasked with manning security in and around displaced people's camps.

The force will be funded to the tune of $220m mainly by the European Union, the AU says.

"We hope to have the enhanced force in the region by the end of this month, or very early next month," Said Djinnit, head of the AU's Peace and Security Council is quoted by AP news agency as saying.

If need be the force will be increased at a later date, AU officials said.

The first round of peace talks, which are being organised by the AU between the Sudanese government and two Darfur rebel groups, ended last month without any concrete result.

"The opening of the talks was meant to be [on Thursday] but now it will be on Saturday, because the AU until now has not managed to get our delegation to Abuja," rebel Sudan Liberation Army official Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur told Reuters news agency by telephone from Kenya.

The second round is expected to last for three weeks.