An advance team of Chinese peacekeeping troops to serve on a UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan arrived here by plane on Tuesday.

The 25 members of the advance team were met at the airport by officials of the UN Mission in Sudan and Military Attache of the Chinese Embassy in Sudan Li Jingping. The team is to head for south Sudan on Wednesday, according to sources.

The United Nations decided on March 24, 2005 to deploy a peacekeeping force to south Sudan to support the implementation of a peace deal signed between the Sudanese government and southern rebels. China was asked by the United Nations to send peacekeepers to the country in the same month.

Some 400 Chinese peacekeepers are due to arrive in Sudan in April and May. The UN peacekeeping force currently has 6,300 troops on the ground. A separate conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region was not covered by the UN deployment.

Source: Xinhua