Beckett presses Sudan on Darfur

By Mike Wooldridge
BBC world affairs correspondent, United Nations, New York

Mrs Beckett said more troops were 'urgently needed'

UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has told Sudan's president it is his responsibility to work with the UN in bringing stability to the region.

The UN remains in dispute with Sudan over the deployment of a 20,000 strong UN peacekeeping force in the troubled Darfur region.

But this week the African Union agreed to keep its 7,000 peacekeepers in the region for a further three months.

Their mandate had been due to expire on 30 September.

Darfur remains in crisis. I pay tribute to the efforts of the African Union and its peacekeepers... We must now reinforce the African Union force, but it can only be a temporary reprieve British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett

Mrs Beckett told the assembly that the three-month extension of the African peacekeeping force could only be a temporary reprieve, and action was needed immediately on the political and humanitarian front.

Discussions on this were due to begin at a special Darfur meeting at the UN later on Friday, and to be taken further with a proposed ministerial visit to Khartoum.

'Lasting peace'

Mrs Beckett said a greatly strengthened international presence on the ground was urgently needed, and she called for the active engagement and support of Asian and more African countries, particularly Muslim nations.

The AU's mandate has been extended for three months

"I urge [Sudanese president] President [Omar] Bashir to extend Sudan's relationship with the United Nations in a common purpose to bring lasting peace and genuine stability to the whole of Sudan. It is, above all, his responsibility," she said.

Mr Bashir has remained adamant here in New York that he will not accept a peacekeeping force under UN control, claiming that behind lies a hidden agenda to divide and weaken his country.

But the pressure on him to give way is also growing.

In the meantime, the focus has already turned to bolstering material and logistical support for the struggling African Union peacekeepers in an attempt to make them effective.