President George W. Bush told NATO's secretary-general on Monday that he hopes the alliance would "take the lead" in ending violence in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. Doing so requires the African Union, which currently heads the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, to formally ask the United Nations to take over control of the force, Bush said as he met with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the White House. "At which point, if that's done, the NATO can move in with United States help inside of NATO to make it clear to the Sudanese government that we're intent upon helping work toward a lasting peace agreement," Bush told reporters. Bush, who previously referred only to NATO "stewardship, planning, facilitating, [and] organizing," said he and Scheffer discussed "a strategy that would enable NATO to take the lead in Darfur." Scheffer also was optimistic about NATO's role in the conflict. "I'm quite sure, as I told the president, that when the U.N. comes, the NATO allies will be ready to do more in enabling a United Nations force in Darfur," he said.
