France hosts meeting on help for Darfur, Chad

By Francois Murphy and Arshad Mohammed

PARIS, June 25 (Reuters) - France hosts a meeting of senior officials from more than a dozen countries on Monday aimed at providing funds and other support for international efforts to stabilise Sudan's violent Darfur region.

Sudan, which did not send a representative to the Paris meeting, agreed earlier this month to a combined United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police, but many diplomats doubt it will keep its word.

The aim of the force is to stop the violence in Darfur, where international experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been expelled from their homes in more than four years of strife. Sudan says 9,000 people have died.

Delegations from the world's top aid donors, members of the Group of Eight industrialised nations and powerful Sudan ally China are due to discuss the situation before moving on to "international support for the reconstruction of Darfur", according to the meeting's agenda.

Sudan's neighbour Chad, which has seen the Darfur conflict spill across its borders, will also be on the agenda.

"We need is to assure the security of the Chadian zone, which we will do," French Defence Minister Herve Morin told France Inter radio.

France has taken a closer interest in Darfur since President Nicolas Sarkozy took office, pledging more work on human rights.

France's financial aid to Darfur remains low compared with other European powers. It gave 3.9 million euros ($5.25 million) in 2006, with 2.5 million euros this year, U.N. figures show.

Sarkozy met U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday before the start of the conference. Neither of them made any comments after their meeting.

At a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Sunday, Rice said the international community has failed in its responsibility to halt the killings in Darfur.

"It is a renewed push in which we can come together and look again at what we need to do," she said.

Kouchner said Monday's meeting was aimed at backing the U.N.-AU effort, offering political support to those trying to bring together rebel groups, and providing funds for the planned hybrid force, which will take over from a beleaguered AU contingent of 7,000.

The Darfur problem dates back to early 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms, accusing the government of not heeding their plight in the remote, arid region. Khartoum mobilised Arab militia, known locally as Janjaweed, to quell the revolt.

The Janjaweed embarked on a campaign of killing, pillage and rape. In the past year rebel groups have fought each other and also attacked civilians.

Rebels in Darfur have split into more than a dozen groups since a peace deal last year signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions.

A senior U.S. official said he hoped the meeting would help to coordinate efforts among the many nations working on Darfur, to explore France's idea of a peace-keeping force in eastern Chad and to promote political efforts to settle the conflict.

Monday's meeting, which will include representatives from Egypt, the United Nations and the World Bank but not the African Union, will likely support an AU-U.N. mediation initiative which hopes to have all factions ready to begin talks around August.