ADDIS ABABA, July 29 (AFP) - The African Union (AU) has delayed deployment of a protection force to western Sudan region of Darfur from end of July, as earlier planned, to early August, due to logistic problems, the AU conflict management centre's deputy El Ghassim Wane said on Thursday.
"The protection force will that was to be deployed in Darfur by end of July, will now not be in place until the first week of August, 2004," Wane said.
"The contributing countries, Nigeria and Rwanda, are still sorting out the volume and size of their forces to be dispatched to Darfur by the AU," Wane added.
The AU had planned to send some 300 troops to Darfur by the end of July to protect its team of observers and monitors overseeing the implementation of a shaky ceasefire deal between the government-backed Janjaweed militia and two rebel groups -- Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).
The pan-African body said on Wednesday that it may deploy a "full-fledged peacekeeping mission" in Darfur to force the Janjaweed militia to lay down its arms in line with a ceasefire deal reached on April 8.
The two rebel groups rose up against Khartoum in February 2003, claiming that the mainly black African region had been ignored by the Arab government.
The uprising prompted a bloody crackdown by Sudanese troops and Janjaweed militias, which have carried out what aid and rights groups have called a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The death toll could be as high as 50,000 and about 1.2 million people have been displaced in the region in 17 months of conflict, according to UN officials.