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 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.

Thailand will send 800 peacekeepers to Sudan's western province of Darfur where they will join United Nations and African Union peacekeeping units at the end of the year, Thai media said Wednesday.

Ethiopia is pledging to send 5,000 troops to Darfur to be part of a new United Nations / African Union peacekeeping force. The pledge comes amid Ethiopia’s involvement in Somalia and growing tensions with neighboring Eritrea.

African Union officials are investigating who attacked an AU peacekeeping base in Sudan's Darfur region and killed at least 10 African soldiers.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council approved plans to send an expanded peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur region. From VOA's New York bureau, Suzanne Presto reports that officials say preparations are already underway to deploy U.N. peacekeepers to create a joint United Nations-African Union force.

Sudan's government says it will abide by a Security Council resolution that paves the way for the United Nations and the African Union to deploy 26,000 peacekeepers to the region. Yet as Nick Wadhams reports from our East Africa bureau in Nairobi, the dominant rebel group in Darfur has its doubts about Khartoum's commitment.

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.

The United States says a U.N. resolution authorizing as many as 26,000 troops in Sudan's war-torn Dafur region will be finalized by Tuesday. Victoria Cavaliere reports for VOA's New York bureau that western countries have been pressing Sudan since last November to accept an expanded peacekeeping force for Darfur.

The African Union has extended the mandate for its Darfur peacekeeping mission until the end of the year as it waits to assemble a combined force with the United Nations.

Human rights groups say they'll call for a boycott of next year's Olympic Games in China, unless the country does its best to secure a lasting peace in Darfur. Thousands of people have been killed, and millions displaced, since conflict broke out in the region in 2003.

A U.N. Security Council delegation visiting Sudan says the Khartoum government has agreed to the deployment of a United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.