World waits to see if Sudan honors promise

NYALA, Sudan -- Sudan's surprise decision to allow 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur was due to pressure from the United States. and Khartoum's top ally, China. But questions remain whether Sudan will honor the deal and whether major countries will step forward with enough troops.

The Sudanese government agreed Monday after five months of stalling to accept the deployment of the peacekeepers, along with six U.N. attack helicopters, to help 7,000 African troops try to halt the violence in the desert region.

It's a major step toward coping with a humanitarian crisis that has claimed more than 200,000 lives and forced 2.5 million people from their homes since 2003.

If the troops are deployed, it would be a boost to the African Union forces, who are too few to cover the sprawling territory, nearly the size of Texas. The helicopters would allow peacekeepers to reach remote villages while attacks are taking place -- unlike now, when AU troops may show up hours or days later, only to count the dead.

"This agreement is the major breakthrough we were all hoping for," Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol said Tuesday. "It proves that the government of Sudan wants to resolve all problems in Darfur."

But many details in the arrangement remain unclear.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is still resisting international demands that he accept another, final phase of deployment of thousands more U.N. troops to build a joint U.N.-AU force of 20,000 soldiers and police.

Akol said the 3,000 troops would be the total U.N. quota for Darfur, and that in the final phase, the U.N. would provide only logistical help to the African force. He described the final stage as a "hybrid operation" -- not the "hybrid force" the United Nations seeks, meaning that the bulk of the troops would come from the United Nations.

Also, many are worried Sudan could even try to roll back on the 3,000 troops.

"We'll see whether they've agreed when they actually start to deploy," the acting U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Alejandro Wolff, told reporters Tuesday in New York.