U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed optimism Thursday that a multinational UN peacekeeping force replacing the ill-equipped African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Darfur would not be regarded by the Sudanese government as a foreign invasion. "We need to work with the [Sudanese] government, and the AU needs to work with us, to convince the government that they are coming in to help contain the situation, but they are not coming in as an invading or a fighting force," Annan told reporters. The AU initially had a mandate to observe ceasefire violations, but its mandate was changed to allow protection of displaced people in refugee camps. --more 13 40 Local Time 10 40 GMT
