United Nations ? The U.N. Security Council president has invited the key players in the Darfur crisis to a meeting next week on a proposed new resolution to transfer peacekeeping in the conflict-wracked region to a U.N. force, a move the Sudanese government strongly opposes.

Last week, the U.S. and Britain introduced a resolution that would authorize the financially strapped African Union to hand over peacekeeping to a much larger and better equipped U.N. force.

The African Union has requested the transfer, saying it is not able to conduct long-term peacekeeping operations, but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir remains staunchly opposed and has warned that Sudan’s army would fight any U.N. forces sent to Darfur.

A May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.

Aid groups, the U.N. and AU peacekeepers say rebel factions are seeking to gain advantage before a permanent peace comes to a region where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government.