China Praises Sudan for Accepting Darfur Peacekeepers

China praised the Sudanese government on Wednesday for agreeing to allow peacekeepers into the troubled region of Darfur and pledged to keep pushing for a solution to the problem.

In a meeting with Sudan's first vice president Salva Kiir, Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong "praised the agreement between Sudan and the African Union and United Nations on peacekeeping troops", state TV reported.

"China will actively push for an early solution to the Darfur problem together with the international community," Zeng said.

Khartoum has accepted a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force of some 20,000 troops and police to bolster the under-equipped African Union force of 7,000 in Darfur.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven into camps during more than four years of violence in the ethnically mixed region bordering Chad. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir puts the death toll at only 9,000.

China, a huge investor in Sudan's oil and traditionally wary of imposing resolutions on unwilling states, has resisted sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur without Khartoum's consent.

But in recent months Beijing has become worried that international condemnation of its stance could stain its hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Human rights groups and other critics have accused China and others of breaching international rules and fanning bloodshed by selling Sudan weapons that have been diverted to Darfur.