NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer flew to an international conference in Ethiopia Wednesday with an offer of logistical support for the African Union's bid to widen its peacekeeping mission in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Making an early exit from a Euro-Asian security meeting in Sweden, he said "What is important, is that the government of Sudan will give the green light to the African Union" to more than double its current peacekeeping operation to about 7,000 troops. He said NATO will offer airplanes to transport African peacekeeping troops, but military planners were still working out the details. "We will do that in close consultation and harmony with the United Nations and, more specifically, the European Union," he was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. On Thursday, De Hoop Scheffer will attend an international conference in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to discuss the Darfur crisis further with EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and AU officials.
