AUSTRALIAN AND US TROOPS SET TO JOIN UN FORCES IN DARFUR

From The Australian newspaper : "UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's push for a beefed-up UN peacekeeping force in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region is continuing to win important US support, raising the prospect that Australia could boost its presence in the African trouble spot.

"In their first Washington meeting in two years, Mr Annan and US President George W. Bush pledged to team up with other nations to end the genocide that has cost 180,000 lives and displaced an estimated two million people since 2003.

"Mr Annan wants a UN peacekeeping force of 20,000 professional soldiers to take over from the ragged 7000-strong African Union force that has failed to stop the slaughter of ethnic African tribes in Darfur by Arab Janjaweed militias backed by the Islamist regime of President Omar al-Beshir."