UNITED NATIONS, May 16: The United Nations Security Council took a major step forward on Tuesday towards establishing a robust peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region. Through a resolution adopted unanimously, the council called for the deployment of a joint UN-Africa Union (AU) assessment team within one week to lay the groundwork for the operation, which would take over from the AU mission (AMIS) now monitoring the area.

The council called on all parties to the Darfur peace agreement, signed earlier this month by the Sudanese government and the largest rebel force in the region to ‘work with the African Union, the United Nations, regional and international organisations and member states to accelerate the transition to a United Nations operation’.

The resolution also called on those rebel groups that have not yet signed the agreement to do so without delay.

Adopted under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which sanctions enforcement measures, the resolution expressed the council’s intention to consider a travel ban and asset freeze against any individual or group that violates or blocks implementation of the agreement.

Under the resolution, Secretary-General Kofi Annan would submit recommendations to the Council within one week of the assessment team’s return on all relevant issues, including force requirement and cost estimates, for a UN operation.

Mr Annan has backed the AU’s call for a transition from AMIS to a UN force. While urging support for the African mission, he told the council earlier this month that ‘we all now agree that this can only be a stopgap measure, and that as soon as possible AMIS must be transformed into a larger and more mobile United Nations operation, better equipped and with a stronger mandate’.