"We would like to see the AU take a decision imminently to actually say we carried the burden, we carried it with dignity and that at this stage the best plan would be for the United Nations to take over that operation," Jones Parry said.

Tuesday, Jan Pronk, the UN special representative in Sudan, said here that Khartoum and the AU seemed to be having second thoughts about the transfer.

"The (Khartoum) government is taking a very strong position against the transition (to the UN) and that is new," Pronk noted. "There is fear in Khartoum that the transition will be a conspiracy, which will bring Sudan into the same situation as Iraq."

Pronk also said that the AU Peace and Security Council might be reconsidering its January decision in principle to replace the African Union force known as AMIS by a robust UN force as demanded by UN chief Kofi Annan.

The 7,000-strong AMIS, which was deployed in 2004, has been suffering from poor funding and inadequate resources to contain the escalating bloodshed in Sudan's western region.

"The AU is certainly sending mixed signals at the moment but the previous report (in January) was unequovical that this should be handed over (to the UN)," Jones Parry told reporters here.

"The best thing the African Union and the government of Sudan can do in the next week or so is to agree the handover so that the whole resources of the UN can be mobilized to actually improve the situation in Darfur which has deteriorated recently" both in security and humanitarian terms, he added.

The UN Security Council in February approved contingency planning for UN peacekeepers to take over from the AU contingent. UN chief Kofi Annan suggested that Western countries help by providing logistical support and air assets for the new force.

The war in Darfur broke out in February 2003, when black ethnic groups launched a rebellion against Khartoum, which was brutally put down by the Arab Islamist regime of President Omar al-Beshir.

The combined effect of the war and one of the world's worst humanitarian crises has left up to 300,000 people dead and an estimated 2.4 million displaced.

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