UK and France modify U.N. text on new Darfur force

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Britain and France have modified a U.N. resolution authorizing up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur by narrowing the scope of where force can be used and dropping some language offensive to Sudan.

The draft, the third one this month, obtained by Reuters on Monday and distributed to U.N. Security Council members over the weekend, is expected to be adopted this week, but further changes are possible.

"We are very close and our expectation is to finalize the text in the next 24 hours," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said after council consultations. But he said some discussions were still needed before a vote could be called.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion (988.2 million pounds) in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

The draft leaves intact a tough mandate, Sudan's biggest complaint, that would allow the use of force to ensure the security and movement of the mission's personnel and humanitarian workers and "to protect civilians under threat of physical violence."

Parts of the resolution are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. It would allow the mission "to use necessary means," a euphemism for a use of force, "as it deems within its capabilities." The previous draft had called for "all necessary means," but the meaning remains the same, diplomats said.

Deleted from the Chapter 7 section and put elsewhere in the text is the monitoring of arms in Sudan in violation of the peace agreement, which indicates force cannot be used.

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