Momentum in Darfur: UN chief

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug 4 (AP): Momentum is building in the effort to find a political solution to the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, but until hostilities on the ground cease, the quest to find a political settlement "will not succeed," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report.
Ban's warning comes on the heels of UN approval for a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force in Darfur and as a meeting gets under way this weekend in Arusha, Tanzania, to get Darfur's various splinter rebel factions to agree on an agenda for peace talks.
In his report, given to the Security Council Friday, Ban said the coming months are crucial for Darfur, but that "as long as hostilities continue in Darfur, efforts to reach a political settlement and achieve durable peace will not succeed."
On Tuesday, the Security Council gave unanimous approval of a 26,000-strong AU-UN peacekeeping force for Darfur to end four years of rape and slaughter of civilians in the vast Sudanese region.
The secretary-general said implementing the Security Council resolution on the AU-UN "hybrid" force will be "a major litmus test of the political will of all involved."