ADDIS ABABA, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The African Union is to deploy 300 armed soldiers under the name of "protection force" in the Sudan's troubled Darfur region in order to protect AU's observers and "restore confidence" for the one million displaced Sudanese togo home, an AU official said here on Monday.

    Speaking on the eve of the AU summit to be held here Tuesday, Director of the AU's Peace and Security Council Sam Ibok said thatthe council is considering a number of 300 armed soldiers, and that Nigeria and Rwanda has already made commitments to this project and they are "ready to go."

    Ibok said that the council is looking at "political solution" to the Darfur crisis, in which about 10,000 people had been killedsince the local Africans revolted in February 2003 in protest against the ignorance of the development of the region by the Khartoum government.

    He said the protection force will not be a peacekeeping force mandated by the United Nations.

    The AU is actively engaged in resolving the Darfur crisis and AU commission Chairman Alpha Konare flew to N'djamena, capital of Chad, last Friday to talk with the Sudanese parties involved in the Darfur crisis. Enditem