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Cairo: Sudan's president has turned down a proposal from Arab and Muslim countries to send Arab peacekeepers to bolster the African Union peacekeepers now in war-torn Darfur, Arab diplomats said yesterday.
But Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir also promised to look into ways to let the world community play a role in dealing with the violence and suffering in Darfur - in a possible sign that a new push of Arab lobbying may be having some effect, the diplomats said.
The Arab League Secretary-General, Amr Moussa, who visited Khartoum last week, carried the proposal to Al Bashir in a fresh bid to break the stalemate over Sudan's rejection of a UN Security Council proposal to send UN peacekeepers to Darfur.
The United States has been heavily lobbying the Arab world in recent days and weeks to press Sudan to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur to stop the violence and provide humanitarian relief.
Arab diplomats who accompanied Moussa said he suggested to Al Bashir that Sudan accept thousands of troops from Arab and Muslim countries, to join the current force of African Union troops and then have that mission later shift to UN peacekeepers.
Samir Hosny, who heads the African section of the Cairo-based League, said Al Bashir was still vehemently opposed to sending UN peacekeepers, but promised to look into Moussa's proposals.
"He [Al Bashir] said he will make an initiative soon. This is what he promised," Hosny said.
Moussa's top aide, Hesham Yousuf, said Al Bashir promised to make his decision "within days."
"We except that the ideas will be closer to what is being circulating," Yousuf told The Associated Press.
"The situation is deteriorating and needs intervention."
Sudan has rejected any idea of allowing UN peacekeepers into Darfur, and has accused "crusaders" from the West of trying to take over the country.
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