Sudan's Bashir welcomes UN's support for AMIS

Oct 4 2006 Xinhua report excerpt:

Sudan welcomed the UN support for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, the official SUNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir made the announcement in a letter to reply a joint message submitted by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Chairperson of the AU Commission Alpha Oumar Konare last month.

"This support will enable the AU peacekeeping forces in Darfur to carry out their tasks stipulated by the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA)," al-Bashir said.

Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadel Badri said on Tuesday that Annan and Konare's message "contains a plan to provide assistance to the African Union forces in Darfur in the logistic, equipment and consultancy domains."

The exchange of letters between the Sudanese president and the UN and AU chiefs took place as the parties concerned were seeking an outlet to the deadlock on a proposed deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur. [Xinhua Editor: Mu Xuequan]