Darfur force could fail if problems not settled: U.N.

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A planned U.N.-African Union peace force for Darfur could fail unless disputes with Sudan over its make-up are resolved and key specialized units found, the top U.N. peacekeeping official said on Wednesday.

The 26,000-member force aims to bring security to the western Sudanese region after 4-1/2 years of conflict between government forces, allied militias and rebels. Even before its full deployment, it is meant to take over from an overwhelmed AU force of 7,000 at the end of this year.

But in his most pessimistic public assessment so far of prospects for the force, U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said: "We believe that now is the time really to face very important decisions, because the clock is ticking."

If the problems were not addressed quickly, "it means that the mission in 2008 ... will not be able to make the difference that the world wants it to make and that it may become a failure," he said after briefing the Security Council.

Sudan says the force must be predominantly African and has so far failed to give approval to a Thai infantry battalion, a Nepalese special forces unit and a Swedish-Norwegian-Danish engineering unit. The United Nations says that even with those contingents the force will still be three-quarters African.

"They (Sudanese authorities) are saying that they want to continue technical discussions," Guehenno, who diplomats said had just returned from meeting Sudanese military officials in Ethiopia, told reporters.

In addition, no country has so far offered required ground transport equipment or met a U.N. request for 18 transport helicopters and six attack helicopters.

Diplomats have said that countries that could provide such equipment, which they say are likely to be non-African, are either overstretched elsewhere or worried about the command and control arrangements of the joint U.N.-AU force.