Jun 25, 2007, 8:55 GMT
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met for more than one hour Monday ahead of a conference on the Darfur crisis to be held later in the day in Paris.
Sarkozy's spokesman, David Martinon, said Sarkozy and Rice discussed 'high-priority issues,' such as Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iran and Darfur.
Rice, who was meeting Sarkozy officially for the first time since the French president took office in May, made no comment after the talks.
In addition to Rice and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the Darfur meeting will also be attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and representatives from China, Russia, Japan and Germany.
One of its aims will be to prepare for the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Darfur, a region in Sudan torn by civil war. The planned force is to be comprised of 20,000 soldiers from the United Nations and the African Union.
Early Monday, French Defence Minister Herve Morin told France-Inter radio that he hoped that the force could be deployed by the beginning of next year at the latest.
However, without the participation of Sudan, which rejected an invitation, little real progress is expected to come out of the conference.
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