The United Nations, the African Union (AU) and the Sudanese Government will participate in a technical-level meeting next week to finalize the measures for the UN “heavy support package” to the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
Monday’s meeting is not intended to re-negotiate the heavy support package, the second phase of the three-step process culminating in the eventual deployment of a hybrid UN-AU force, Mr. Ban told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.
“As the Government of Sudan has made certain reservations on my proposals, this meeting will be used to clarify and for an exchange of views on this heavy support package,” he said following a briefing to the Security Council on his recent trip to the Middle East.
“We hope that, through these consultative meetings, we will be able to deploy hybrid forces as soon as possible.”