The newly-appointed U.S. envoy for Sudan will leave on Thursday for Khartoum, where he is set to meet senior government officials to discuss violence in Darfur and other issues, the State Department said. Andrew Natsios, who was appointed last month by President George W. Bush, was granted a visa this week to visit Sudan, according to a State Department official. He has a visa and will head out for Khartoum today. He will meet senior officials, the official said. Natios, the former chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has said he will try to convince Sudan' s government, and President Omar Hassan Al Bashir, to accept a 20,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur.
