A senior UN official said on Tuesday that the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Sudan's restive western region of Darfur would help stabilize the security situation there.

"It is important to send international forces to Darfur and this will be in the interests of the Sudanese people and the government," said Jan Egeland, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, at a press conference held in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

He also said that it was unnecessary to think that the UN forces were tantamount to forces from western countries.

"The international forces should be viewed as the UN forces from various countries and nationalities, and they are possibly Arab forces or African forces or Islamic forces funded by the UN and under its administration," the UN official said.

Egeland also appreciated the peacekeeping efforts of the African Union (AU) forces in Darfur, but said that the short- handed cash-strapped AU forces needed more resources and an expanded mandate and should be reinforced.

The AU has deployed some 7,800-strong forces in Darfur since 2004 to observe a shaky ceasefire agreement between the Sudanese government and the Darfur rebels, but their mandate will expire on Sept. 30.

Egeland visited Sudan after the Sudanese government and a key Darfur rebel faction signed a peace agreement in the Nigerian capital of Abuja last Friday.

But two other major rebel factions refused to ink the deal.

Egeland was forced on Monday to cut short his tour in a refugee camp in Darfur and returned to Khartoum in the face of fierce protests demanding the deployment of international troops in Darfur.

A Sudanese interpreter working with the AU who accompanied Egeland during the visit was killed in the mob violence.

Observers say that the signing of the peace agreement might help pave the way for the deployment of international peacekeeping forces to replace the AU troops in Darfur.

Rebels in the arid Darfur region took up arms against the Sudanese government in February 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglect.

Source: Xinhua