UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed on Wednesday a three-way agreement on the proposed deployment of the African Union (AU) and UN peacekeeping mission to Sudan's Darfur as "a milestone development."

"I was encouraged by this agreement" reached by the AU, the United Nations and the Sudanese government, Ban told reporters at the UN Headquarters before joining a Security Council meeting on Iraq.

"It was a milestone development. Even though slow, we have been making steady progress and this should be something to be encouraged," he said.

Ban voiced concern over "skeptical" reporting by some media over the agreement, urging them to look at the "positive side."

"I was a little bit concerned by the skeptical and understandings or observations on this issue," he said. "You should look at the positive side of this development."

A joint statement issued in Addis Ababa by the AU, the United Nations and Sudan said Khartoum had accepted the deployment of the hybrid AU-UN force of some 17,000 to 19,000 troops for Darfur.

Source: Xinhua