African leaders, including the president of Sudan, urged the international community on Wednesday not to send troops to Darfur or to impose sanctions because of violence there. The declaration came after the leaders met in Chad for talks aimed at reviving a faltering peace process in the Sudanese region. "The heads of state called on the international community to continue to give its support to African efforts already underway and to abstain from all action which could harm these efforts, including the imposition of sanctions and all deployment of non-African forces," the leaders said in a statement. The talks in Chad's capital N'Djamena were between Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby, the leaders of Gabon and Congo Republic and African Union Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare. They called for a "total and definitive ceasefire" in Darfur and urged the African Union to transform its mission into a real peacekeeping operation, respecting Sudan's sovereignty.
