Western nations circulate new UN draft on Darfur

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Western nations yesterday circulated a toned-down resolution in the UN Security Council mandating the speedy deployment of a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force in Darfur and dropping the threat of sanctions.

After discussions with their African colleagues in the council, envoys of Britain, France and the United States expressed confidence that they now had the basis of a text that could attract broad support.

Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters that as a result of Tuesday's talks with African council members: "we changed the text quite considerably. The tonality has changed ... I think there is less threatening language in there. It's more of a conciliatory text."

The sponsors dropped a paragraph in an earlier draft that would have threatened unspecified "further measures (sanctions) against Sudanese parties that fail to fulfill their commitments or cooperate fully with the resolution.

"I hope we'll get to rapid closure on the text," Jones Parry said, expressing that it could be adopted by the end of the month.

But after preliminary consultations with the sponsors, Sudan's UN envoy Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said he still had reservations about many parts of the text "which are inconsistent with the terms of reference or the situation as it prevails (in Darfur)."

He specifically objected to some aspects of the force's mandate.