KHARTOUM, April 23 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian delegation arrived in Khartoum Monday to deliver a message to Sudanese President Omeral-Bashir from his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.

    The delegation is headed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. 

    Abul Gheit told reporters before leaving Cairo that the message dealt with the developments in the western Sudanese region of Darfur and the ways of over passing a tension between the countries concerned because of the Darfur crisis.

    During the several-hour visit, the delegation will have talks with the Sudanese president and other senior Sudanese officials.

    The visit comes at a time when Khartoum is under mounting pressures from the United States and a few other western countries for a deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

    On April 16, the Sudanese government accepted a UN heavy support package for the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, including the deployment of attack helicopters in the region.

    The heavy support is the second phase of a three-phase plan regarding the deployment of a UN-AU hybrid force in the war-torn region, in which a civil war has displaced some one million civilians and claimed a number of lives since it erupted in Feb. 2003.