Billions needed for Darfur

UNITED NATIONS, Saturday 

A UN force to halt the bloodshed in Darfur could cost up to $1.7 billion a year, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday, a step that could send the current $4.75 billion peacekeeping budget soaring.

Annan sent the estimate to the UN Security Council a day after it authorised a force of as many as 22,600 troops and police to protect civilians and enforce a shaky peace deal in the western Sudanese region after three years of war.

US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters yesterday that France and Japan had expressed concern about the mission's price tag but said the mission was important.

The Sudan force will not be sent into Darfur until the government gives its consent. Khartoum has so far flatly refused to let in UN troops. – Reuters