NEW YORK, October 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Sudan has agreed to welcome an expanded African Union force in its troubled region of Darfur and expand its mandate to monitor government troops, a move welcomed by the US, said an American newspaper on Saturday, October 2.

Khartoum’s decision comes as the Security Council prepares to review a report next week on progress in Darfur drafted by the secretary general's special representative on Sudan, Jan Pronk.

The United Nations labeled the Darfur conflict, erupted in February 2003, as the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, putting the number of people killed at 10,000 to 50,000 and over one million reportedly forced to flee their homes.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mostafa Othman Ismail said Khartoum did not mind increasing AU troops to five thousand or expanding their mandate.

The AU currently has some 300 soldiers in Darfur, whose task is to protect some 150 observers monitoring a ceasefire reached in April between Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups.

In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Friday, October 1, Ismail said his government had asked the AU to work with its security forces in Darfur "so that we will make sure that there is no violation of human rights, there is no killing, there is building of confidence."

"We need to expand their mandate and to give them more mandates, for protection, mandate for checking, mandate for investigating, and yes, they need such mandates," the Times quoted him as saying.

The United States welcomed Sudan's decision and urged the speedy deployment of AU troops.

The State Department reaffirmed that Washington, which has already contributed 6.8 million dollars for logistical support for the existing deployment of AU monitors and another 20.6 million for other support, was prepared to further assist with the enlargement of the force.

"We certainly welcome [Sudanese officials'] comments that the government of Sudan has agreed to an African Union request for an expanded mission in Darfur," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted as saying deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.

"We think it's important that more troops get there quickly," he told reporters.

"We are working with all the parties to help the African Union rapidly deploy the expanded monitoring and protection force."

On Friday, October 1, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit confirmed that Sudan's government has "formally accepted the reinforcement of the AU force" in Darfur.

The size and new mandate of the AU force is expected to be determined at a meeting of the pan-African Peace and Security Council in mid-October.

But Sudanese envoy Osman Al Sayyed told Sudan’s daily Al Sahafa newspaper that an accord providing for the deployment of 3,500 more soldiers and 800 more police officers was signed Thursday, September 30, in Addis Ababa by Sudan's Deputy Foreign Minister Salih Fidhail Al Tigani and Djinnit.

On Monday, September 27, Ismail supported the idea of transforming war-torn Sudan's government into a federal system with considerable autonomy granted to its states, including Darfur.