BRITAIN:Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy moved yesterday to end the conflict in Darfur, saying they were prepared to make a joint trip to the region.
After their first meeting in Paris since taking office, the two leaders said France and Britain would sponsor a UN resolution calling for an African Union and UN peacekeeping force.
The UN security council is considering a 26,000-strong "hybrid" African Union-UN peacekeeping force for Darfur, which France and Britain want agreed by the end of this month.
The UK foreign secretary, David Milliband, and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, will be dispatched to UN headquarters in New York to pressure the council's members into reaching an agreement quickly.
"We hope that resolution will pass quickly," Mr Brown said. "Once the United Nations resolution is passed, we are prepared to go together to Darfur to make sure that the peace process is moving forward."
The four-year conflict has left 200,000 dead and displaced 2.5 million. A 7,000-strong African Union force has been unable to stop the fighting and the conflict has spilled into the Central African Republic and Chad.
"It is one of the great humanitarian disasters of our generation and it is happening as we speak," Mr Brown said. "It is incumbent on the whole world to act."
Britain and France will push for an immediate ceasefire in Darfur and were prepared to provide "substantial" economic aid "as soon as a ceasefire makes it possible", Mr Brown said.
If no action is taken, however, "we will be prepared to consider as individual countries a toughening-up of sanctions against the Sudanese regime", he added.
In Washington, president George Bush disclosed that he considered sending US troops to Darfur. "I made the decision not to send US troops unilaterally into Darfur. The threshold question is: 'If there is a problem, why don't you take just go take care of it?' And I made the decision, in consultation with allies as well as consultation with members of Congress and activists, that . . . it just wasn't the right decision."
In 2005, Tony Blair considered sending 5,000 British troops but was advised by the military and diplomats that they risked being a magnet for Islamist militants.
Mr Brown and Mr Sarkozy met for more than an hour at the Elysée Palace in Paris in a session dominated by Darfur and the environment. They proposed a cut in European VAT rates on environmentally friendly products "from fridges to installation".
The leaders stressed their mutual admiration. Officials hope this marks a change from the often strained ties between their predecessors. From Jacques Chirac's comment on Margaret Thatcher - "What more does the bag want? My balls on a platter?" - to clashes with Mr Blair over the Iraq war and EU farm reform, the mood between British and French leaders has been tense.
Mr Sarkozy said he had long admired Mr Brown as "one of the most brilliant finance ministers in Europe" and that they spoke at least once a week. Both leaders repeatedly stressed their commitment to work together, even if Mr Sarkozy's enthusiastic pledges to co-operate with "les anglais" drew a stare from the Scot.
"They share a number of characteristics," said Le Monde. "Strong-willed, even domineering, personalities; impatience to get on with the job; a determination to reform; a desire to break with the past; as well as a sharp sense of each country's national identity."
But there is clear potential for disagreements over competition, protectionism and EU enlargement, as well as farm subsidies. At last month's EU summit Mr Sarkozy succeeded in removing from the proposed European treaty a commitment to unfettered competition. Mr Sarkozy told journalists he was not "against" competition per se, but it was "a means and not an end". - (Guardian news service)