KHARTOUM, Aug. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The Sudanese government has accepted a joint Sudan-UN plan for ending the crisis in its western region of Darfur, the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported Monday.

    During a cabinet meeting held Sunday, the Sudanese government accepted the plan drawn up last week by Jan Pronk, UN special envoy to Sudan, and Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail.     

    According to the plan, Khartoum has to secure safe villages andcamps for the return of displaced people and set up safe access routes and escorted convoys. The plan also calls for a cease-fire in the safe areas so that the African Union (AU) monitors could oversee the disarming process of the militias.

    The SUNA also reported that Khartoum insisted on Monday it onlyaccept a 300-strong protection force from the AU, refusing an AU plan to increase the troop strength to 2,000 and expand their roleto full-fledged peacekeeping.

    Rebel groups in Darfur took up arms against the government in February last year, claiming that their region was neglected by the government.

    In July, under the support of the AU, the peace talks between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, ended without progress in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

    The United Nations considers Darfur as a place with the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world, which has left up to 10,000 people dead and some 1 million displaced.

    On July 30, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution, giving Sudan 30 days to disarm the militias, known as the Janjaweed, which was blamed for atrocities in Darfur. Otherwise, Sudan will face international sanctions.

    However, countries like Egypt are against internationalizing the Darfur crisis. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit saidMonday the Darfur crisis had been internationalized when the UN Security Council put it on its agenda and adopted Resolution 1556

    Gheit said Egypt and other Arab and African countries were working to avoid more internationalization of the Darfur issue.

    Also on Monday, foreign minister Ismail said in Cairo that the Sudanese government could calm down the situation in Darfur soon.

    He said the UN wanted Sudan to achieve tangible progress in security in a short period of time, and the Sudanese government would be able to do it.

    Ismail also expressed satisfaction with the outcome of an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday, saying the Arab League and the AU agreed that there was no genocide in Darfur.

    Meanwhile, the European Union (EU), which has sent a fact-finding mission to Sudan, also said on Monday it had found no evidence of genocide in the troubled region of Darfur, though there was widespread violence there.

    Reports from the UN on Monday added that rebel forces in Darfurhad agreed to allow some 500,000 children cut off from regular health services to be vaccinated against potentially killer diseases like measles and polio. Enditem