UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Sudan had agreed to the force during high-level talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday, though the size of the force and who would command it was still pending a formal decision by Khartoum.
Sudan has been sending out mixed messages in the last few days, since a joint communique following Thursday's talks said it had agreed in principle to a UN force it had been resisting for months.
Some Sudanese officials have expressed support for UN troops on the ground while others said Sudan will only accept financial and logistical aid from the UN.
On Friday, Sudan's state-run news agency (SUNA) reported Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol as saying that Khartoum will not accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan met in Addis Ababa Thursday with representatives of the US, the European Union, the African Union and the Arab League among others to thrash out solutions to the ongoing Darfur conflict.
Sudan had until Thursday staunchly resisted the call for a UN presence in Darfur, likening a UN mission to colonization and insisting that only an African Union force could remain.
The AU has only about 7,000 troops in all of Darfur, a region the size of France.
The AU was scheduled to pull out of Darfur in September, but agreed to remain in the region to prevent a security vacuum, following Sudan's refusal to allow UN entry.
A UN Security Council resolution in August mandated a 20,000- strong UN peacekeeping force. Dujarric said that while Khartoum had now agreed to the force in principle, it was waiting for a decision on the size.
More than 300,000 people have died since the conflict began nearly four years ago and more than 2 million have been displaced.
The AU force currently monitoring Darfur has suffered from a lack of funding and a weak mandate that critics charge does not allow it to protect civilians.
United Nations humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, on Saturday painted a grim picture of life for millions of civilians Darfur, where spiralling violence has led to increased bloodshed in recent days.
Egelend, on his final trip to western Sudan, was forced to cut short his trip to Darfur after Sudanese officials told him that four of six locations he planned to visit were inaccessible due to the insecurity there.
The UN envoy's delegation was confined to the main towns of El Geneina and El Fasher where Egeland said he met women and children pleading for security.
Egeland warned against continuing violence and called on the Sudanese government, militia groups and rebels to exercise restraint.
'We are now playing with a powder keg,' Egeland told journalists in Khartoum. 'It could get infinitely worse for everybody, unless everybody pulls back.'
Egeland also called on the Sudanese government to cease placing restrictions on aid workers in the region.
Observers have charged Sudan with limiting the movement of aid workers in order to hide the severity of the Darfur conflict, while continuing a military campaign against rebels in the region.
Aid workers and journalists are often unable to obtain permits to travel to the region, and restrictions have increased in recent weeks.
Sudan claims the level of violence has been exaggerated by Western nations for political gain.
'I have one appeal to the government of Sudan,' Egeland said. 'Help us help your people.'
The Sudanese government is charged with arming nomadic Arab tribes to crush a 2003 rebellion by African farmers who complained that Darfur remained undeveloped due to neglect by the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.
Rather than fighting the rebels, militias known as Janjaweed concentrated their attacks on civilians, mainly women and children.
A May 2006 AU-brokered peace agreement between Sudan's government and one rebel group has only ignited more fighting, as the Sudanese armed forces battle holdout rebel factions in Darfur.
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