Leaders of the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) started on Monday a two-day high-level meeting to move forward the AU-UN partnership on Darfur as Sudan confirmed its approval of a heavy support package from the UN for the AU peacekeeping mission.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Alpha Oumar Konare, the AU's chairman, as well as their respective envoys for Darfur -- Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim -- huddled behind closed doors on Monday morning to discuss issues including ways to move forward on the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force.

The secretary-general told Konare that the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur remains difficult, with reports of tribal inter-ethnic fighting in South Darfur and the resumption of the Sudanese government's aerial campaign in North Darfur, said Ban's spokesperson in a noon briefing.

In the afternoon, Ban and the AU chairman also held an unofficial meeting with the UN Security Council members who received a letter from the Sudanese government about the heavy support package for Darfur.

Speaking to reporters following the meetings, Ban said he had " a very useful and intensive consultation" with the AU chairman and Security Council members.

The UN chief said the Sudanese government's acceptance of the heavy support package is "a good sign."

"I and the African Union intend to move quickly to prepare for the deployment of the heavy support package and the bybrid force," he said, adding that the UN and the AU intend to "intensify the inclusive political process to facilitate all the peace agreements and also protect the civilians in Darfur."

Earlier in the day, the UN chief received a letter from Sudan's UN ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem that confirmed Sudan's approval of "the helicopters component" of the heavy support package for the AU force.

"It is the sincere hope of the Sudan that implementation of the heavy support package would proceed expeditiously," Abdalhaleem said in the letter.

The UN, the AU and the Sudanese government agreed in November last year on the three-phase support plan which was also known as the Annan plan as it was put forward by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

With the first phase of the plan, a light support package already underway, the three parties reached an agreement in principle in Addis Ababa on April 9 to inaugurate the second phase of a UN support plan for the AU mission in Darfur, known as "the heavy support phase."

But the Sudanese government's opposition for the deployment of attack helicopters in Darfur had blocked the scheduled implementation of the second phase.

Source: Xinhua