The United States called on Friday for more African Union police in camps housing 2 million displaced people in Darfur, saying it would help stop attacks on civilians in the Sudanese region, Reuters reported. Visiting Darfur for a second time since April, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick also urged the Sudanese government to disarm Arab militias accused of several crimes. "We are certainly sending a very strong message to the government of Sudan that we want them to stop the militias ... and we also want them to move to disarm the militias," he said in El-Fasher, one of Darfur's main cities. He was speaking to reporters after talks at the regional headquarters of the 53-nation African Union in Darfur, where more than half the population is going hungry and AU troops are struggling to keep the peace. "The message we have is that where we have AU forces conflict doesn't occur ... and that's one reason why a key element of the strategy is to expand the AU force presence," Reuters quoted Zoellick as saying. --More 0003 Local Time 2103 GMT
