Annan says he hopes Sudan will accept UN force

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he hoped Sudan would "ultimately" accept a United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur, despite president Omar al-Bashir’s continued opposition.

Speaking in Geneva, Annan said he hoped an aid conference in Brussels next month would produce more support for the African Union’s force, but that longer term “I still think a United Nations peacekeeping force will be needed.”

He noted that Bashir had rejected the idea on Tuesday, vowing never to let UN peacekeepers into Darfur.

“The talks continue and I hope ultimately we will be able to convince them to accept a UN force,” Annan said.

“No one, and least of all the UN, is interested in imposing anything like a colonial rule on one of its member states, and of course that was one of the fears president Bashir used in rejecting the UN presence,” he added.