Sudan’s president has rejected a proposal to send thousands of UN peacekeepers to Darfur to boost 7,000 African peacekeepers there, crushing hopes for a quick solution to a crisis that is spreading across central Africa.

THE African Union lacks the funds to maintain its peacekeeping force or to boost its efficiency amid a deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Sudan’s Darfur, a top AU official warned yesterday.

The African Union will end talks among warring parties in Sudan’s Darfur region by April 30 if the Khartoum government and rebel factions fail to agree to a peace deal, a senior mediator says.