Darfur plan accepted

Sudan’s president says he accepts a United Nations package to help end escalating violence in Darfur and is ready for urgent discussions on a ceasefire.

President Omar al-Bashir said in the letter to UN secretary general Kofi Annan that Sudan was ready “to start immediately” to implement two recent agreements that endorsed the three-step UN plan to beef up the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union force on the ground in the vast conflict-wracked western region.