U.N. special envoy Jan Eliasson will hold a technical-level meeting with experts and Sudanese officials next week to finalize issues regarding a joint U.N.-African Union (AU) peacekeeping and support package for Darfur, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday. Ban and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed last week to hold the meeting. Ban hoped the meeting would result in the deployment of the U.N.-AU hybrid peacekeeping force as soon as possible. A high-level meeting will be convened at the United Nations on April 16 and 17 with top AU official Alpha Omar Konare, special envoy Eliasson, and AU special envoy Salim Salim.
