United Nations Security Council members were set to hold talks with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on a joint UN-African Union (AU) force for war-torn Darfur Sunday, a week after Khartoum agreed to the mission, according to dpa. The 15-member Security Council had earlier met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol, hashing out the final details of the mission, which will see up to 19,000 troops deployed to the embattled Western region. Sudan agreed to the hybrid force last week, but it remained unclear who would command the mission, part of a three-phase UN plan for Darfur. Sudan had opted for an African-led force but later said it would accept the deployment with "no conditions." Al-Bashir has faced intense international pressure over his handling of the Darfur crisis and has been accused of stalling the deployment of the robust force to replace a cash-strapped, 7,000-member AU mission. Meanwhile, France began an airlift of relief supplies to refugee camps Sunday in Eastern Chad - which house tens of thousands of displaced Darfuris - as ordered by new French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sudan's Islamist government has been charged with arming Arab militias to crush a rebellion by mostly African tribes who complained that remote Darfur remained ignored and undeveloped. A violent scorched earth campaign followed, and the UN estimates more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million displaced in the four-year conflict.
