The African Union last night extended its mission in Darfur until September 30 to buy time to break an impasse over the transfer of peacekeeping duties in Sudan's vast west to UN forces.
The AU communiqué noted that Sudan was prepared to accept deployment of a UN operation "after and as part of the conclusion of a peace agreement" emerging from talks between Darfur rebels and the government in Abuja, Nigeria.
But the statement fell short of what some UN diplomats wanted by reiterating previous positions that the African Union accepted "in principle" a hand over to the United Nations.
Still, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he expected Sudan to accept a UN force as it did in the southern part of the country where the United Nations has some 7,000 peacekeepers.
"I expect them to cooperate with deployment in Darfur," Mr Annan said in a telephone interview.
"The UN is coming in to help in a situation that has persisted for too long," Mr Annan said in New York. "We will build on the foundations that the AU has laid," he added.
The pan-African group was under intense international pressure to turn over Darfur peacekeeping to the United Nations but Sudan said any such action would spell the end of the AU-mediated peace talks in Abuja.
AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said extending the AU mandate to September 30 would give the organisation time to persuade Sudan to accept a UN presence.
Sudan is accused by UN and US officials of arming marauding Arab militia, who have raped, pillaged, killed and driven into squalid camps some 2 million villagers. Sudan has denied the charge.