PARIS - Efforts to end the conflict in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur are at a key moment as the government no longer rules out accepting a foreign force, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in an interview.

Soldiers man a Sudanese army checkpoint outside the abandoned village of Hashaba, south of Al-Fasher in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur. Efforts to end the conflict in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur are at a key moment as the government no longer rules out accepting a foreign force, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in an interview. [AFP]

"Today everything leads us to believe we are at a key moment. For the first time since February 2003, the Sudanese government isn't ruling out the possibility of accepting on its territory an international force," Douste-Blazy was quoted as saying in Le Figaro.

An international force "is crucial if we want to avoid the violence spreading bit by bit to neighboring countries," he said.

Sudan had rejected a UN Security Council resolution calling for the deployment of UN troops to take over from African Union mission (AMIS).

But last week UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that Sudan had in principle agreed to a joint AU-UN peacekeeping force, although Khartoum's stance is not entirely clear, as Sudanese officials have repeated that no UN peacekeepers would be allowed on the ground.

The war in Darfur erupted in February 2003 when rebels from minority tribes took up arms to demand an equal share of national resources, prompting a heavy-handed crackdown from government forces and a proxy militia called the Janjaweed.

According to the UN, some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million more have been displaced in three years of fighting.