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US expected to push for bigger NATO role in Darfur

April 26, 2006 (SOFIA, Bulgaria) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to push NATO allies this week to accept a more robust role for the alliance helping African peacekeepers end political and ethnic strife in Sudan’s Darfur region.

US_Condoleezza_Rice.jpgDarfur is expected to be a major topic at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers Thursday and Friday in the Bulgarian capital, along with the dangers facing allied troops as they expand their mission in Afghanistan and the intensifying nuclear standoff between Iran and the West.

Iran wasn’t on NATO’s official agenda, but is expected to dominate an informal dinner Thursday evening where ministers representing the 32 nations of NATO and the European Union are scheduled to hold free-ranging talks on world affairs.

Wednesday, Rice said that Washington was concerned over Iranian threats to share the nuclear technology it is developing with other countries.

Rice was in Turkey on a weeklong trip to Europe that started in Greece. Early Wednesday, she departed Turkey for a surprise visit to Iraq. She was expected to visit Sofia, Bulgaria, after the Iraq visit, the U.S. Embassy said.

Rice was likely to seek common ground with allies before Friday’s U.N. Security Council deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or material for warheads.

Western officials have warned Tehran that failure to comply could lead to sanctions, but they faced opposition from permanent Security Council members China and Russia. It was unclear what the next steps of the U.S. and European allies will be. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to join the NATO talks Friday.

On Darfur, Washington has been urging NATO to step up its support for African Union peacekeepers, which so far has been limited to airlifts and a small training mission for African Union commanders.

The 6,000 strong African Union force has failed to halt political and ethnic violence, which has killed more than 180,000 people and driven more than three million from their homes.

The U.S. wants NATO to provide the Africans with logistics, communications, transport, planning, intelligence and expanded training – including an unspecified number of instructors and other experts on the ground in Sudan.

NATO has offered to do more, but several allies fear sending significant numbers of Europeans and North Americans could inflame regional sensitivities – particularly if the mainly Muslim Sudanese government opposes a NATO deployment.

Osama bin Laden accused the U.S., in a tape aired Sunday, of igniting strife in Darfur “to pave the way for sending Crusader forces to occupy the region and steal its oil under the pretext of peacekeeping. It is a continuing Crusader-Zionist war against Muslims.”

Any final decision on NATO’s role is expected to come only after complex negotiations involving the Sudanese government, the U.N., the African Union and the 26 NATO members.

The Sofia meeting is also expected to discuss proposals for NATO to develop closer ties other democracies including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea to coordinate political positions and peacekeeping operations.

The ministers will also review efforts by Ukraine, Georgia, Croatia, Albania and Macedonia to join the alliance. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer Tuesday said NATO leaders would “send a signal” on the countries’ membership aspirations at a summit in November, but a final decision was unlikely before 2008.

(ST/AP)

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