Arabs to UN: Give Sudan More Time on Darfur 
By Reuters
August 20, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-sudan-arabs.html

CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab governments on Sunday asked the U.N. Security Council to postpone a meeting on Darfur and give the Sudanese government more time to explain its plan to restore order in the troubled region.
After a one-day meeting in Cairo, Arab foreign ministers also backed an extension of the mandate of the African Union peace force in Darfur until the end of the year.
The United States and Britain have introduced a resolution in the Security Council that would deploy up to 17,000 troops and 3,000 police in the western Sudanese region, despite opposition from the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Junior diplomats have started negotiations on the draft, drawn up by Britain, and will resume work on Tuesday.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol told the meeting, at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, that the diplomatic activity at the United Nations was ``tendentious'' and Arab countries should support Sudan's plan instead.
Under the Sudanese plan, the Khartoum government would send 10,500 new government troops to Darfur. The rights group Human Rights Watch says the plan would violate a peace deal and was just a way to avert the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.
The African Union has about 7,000 soldiers struggling to halt violence in Darfur but the trouble has worsened since the government and rebels signed a peace deal in May.
The United States and its allies have argued that the African Union forces do not have the manpower, resources or financial means to keep the peace there.
A resolution passed by the Arab League council of foreign ministers said: ``(The council) asks the Security Council to give the Sudanese government more time to implement its plan to improve conditions and preserve security in Darfur, which it presented to the United Nations on August 2.''
It added: ``It calls for the postponement of the U.N. Security Council meeting which is due to take place next week in New York...to allow time for consultation and coordination between regional organizations on the role of AU forces in Darfur.''
The resolution did not specifically mention the new proposals by the United States and Britain, which reflect frustration with the Sudanese government's refusal to approve a U.N. role in Darfur peacekeeping.
However, it called on Arab countries to fulfil a promise, made at a summit in Khartoum in March, to finance the African Union peace operation in Darfur for six months from Oct 1. The operation has been costing about $17 million a month.