FACTBOX - African Union troops back Comoros assault

(Reuters) - African Union troops backing the Comoros government in assaulting the rebel island of Anjouan could score a relatively easy victory for the regional bloc after setbacks in Darfur and Somalia.

Some 1,350 AU troops are in Comoros to help bring Anjouan under central government control.

African countries are wary of allowing breakaway regions because of the precedent it could set for other states whose borders were drawn up by colonial masters without respect for local ethnic differences.

Here are some details of other AU military interventions:

BURUNDI:

-- The first military intervention was the 2003 deployment of AU peacekeepers from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique to Burundi following a decade of massacre, rape and pillage.

-- Some violence continued despite a ceasefire between the Tutsi-led government and the main Hutu rebel group. The AU force, which had complained of underfunding, was able to hand over to a U.N. force in 2004 and elections were held in 2005.

-- AU special representative Mamadou Bah said in 2005 the AU's experience in Burundi gave it the confidence to try to tackle other problems on the continent.

SUDAN: