To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations she is making to members of the African Union to send troops to join the joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force. (143233)

The UK is a strong supporter of the proposed UN/African Union (AU) hybrid force and of AMIS, the current AU force in Sudan. We have been encouraging key troop contributing countries in Africa to contribute to peacekeeping in general and to AMIS in particular. Although the AU and UN have not yet issued any formal requests for troop generation for the hybrid force, we will urge them to contribute forces. The UK also helps several African nations—through provision of military training—to allow them to send forces to join UN and AU peacekeeping missions.