Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will deliver a message to his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir to defuse tensions in Sudan's Darfur region, said a statement from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry Sunday.

According to the statement, an Egyptian mission headed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will leave for Khartoum Monday with Mubarak's message of concern on the recent developments of the Darfur crisis.

In the statement, Abul Gheit said the talks between the Egyptian mission and the Sudanese side will focus on means to convince all rebel factions to join the political process as well as the three stages of support for the African peacekeepers.

The visit also aims to brief the Sudanese side on efforts by Egypt at the UN Security Council and international parties to avoid more tension on Darfur and help settling the issue in a peaceful way, he added.

The UN, the AU and the Sudanese government agreed in November last year on the three-phase support plan, also known as the Annan plan as it was put forward by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

With the first phase of the plan already underway, the three parties reached an agreement in principle in Addis Ababa on April 9 to inaugurate the second phase.

The second phase involves the deployment of 3,000 UN troops and six attack helicopters in Darfur to support the 7,800-strong African force, as well as preparation for the next phase, in which a much larger UN force would be sent to the region.

Sudan's UN envoy announced on April 16 that the Sudanese government has approved the UN plan to send attack helicopters to support the African Union (AU) force in war-torn Darfur.

On April 19, Abul Gheit sent urgent messages to the foreign ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council member states, warning against new sanction on Sudan.

The Sudanese government should be given more time to implement its latest commitment though some members of the Security Council, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, have been discussing imposing sanctions against Sudan, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday told reporters in Geneva.

Source: Xinhua