The head of UN peacekeeping has complained that Sudanese government red tape and lack of resources are delaying the deployment of an international force to protect civilians in the war-stricken region of Darfur.

The human rights group Amnesty International has teamed up with John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, to raise awareness and money for the victims of the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Participants at a United Nations-African Union sponsored meeting on Darfur have urged all rebel groups to attend peace talks next month in Libya and say those that boycott could face consequences.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir said Friday his government is ready to announce a cease-fire with rebel forces. During a visit to Rome, al-Bashir said the truce will coincide with the start of peace talks over the conflict in Darfur.

Negotiations aimed at resolving Sudan's brutal Darfur conflict faltered before they began on Friday after a leading rebel groups refused to participate. As Nick Wadhams reports from our East Africa bureau in Nairobi, the boycott raises new doubts about prospects for peace in Darfur.

The European Union is considering the possibility of sending peacekeepers to Sudan's Darfur province, the European foreign policy chief said Thursday. Javier Solana welcomed Wednesday the unanimous adoption by the UN Security Council of Resolution 1769, authorizing the deployment of a UN/AU Hybrid Mission in Darfur.

The U.N. Security Council approved the creation of a hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force to quell the violence and instability plaguing the Darfur region of Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and two million others forced to flee their homes.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. President George W. Bush concluded their talks with a brief news conference at which they pledged they will both help Iraq become stable and asserted that the relationship between their two countries will remain strong.

The United Nations is considering a proposal to set up a joint U.N.-European Union peacekeeping force to help protect Darfur refugees in Eastern Chad.

African heads of state are arriving in Ghana's capital, Accra, to prepare for an African Union Summit that officially opens Sunday, July 1. The meeting aims to address a Libyan proposal to create a continent-wide government. But African human rights activists say there are many more pressing issues, such as the conflict in Darfur, that should be addressed first.

A conference in Paris aimed at finding a solution to the crisis in Darfur has ended with an agreement to coordinate future measures in the troubled region. But as Anita Elash reports for VOA from Paris, most of the key players did not attend the gathering.

China has rejected U.S. plans for more sanctions against Sudan and has called for more patience to resolve the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. China also defended its investments in Sudan as helping to bring about peace.