Sudan agreed yesterday to allow UN helicopter gunships to patrol Darfur in support of overstretched African Union (AU) peacekeepers, but continued to reject a much larger UN presence.

The Sudanese Government approved the deployment of the six helicopters as part of a 3,000-peacekeeper UN “heavy support package” for the 7,000-strong AU mission in its war-torn western province.

Lam Akol, the Sudanese Foreign Minister, described the decision as a breakthrough. But Khartoum still refuses to endorse plans for an eventual “hybrid” UN-AU force totalling 20,000 troops to stop four years of fighting between government-backed Janjawid Arab militias and rebel groups that have killed more than 200,000 people and forced more than two million from their homes.

Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, chaired a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council last night to push for a Darfur peace agreement. “There is a very strong and united view that we have seen this week a little progress, but that we need to see much more progress towards peace and security and a resolution of the humanitarian situation in Darfur,” she said after the meeting.

The Security Council, in a statement, welcomed Sudan’s decision on the “heavy support package” but repeated its call for the immediate deployment of the larger hybrid force. Western officials gave warning that Sudan faces increasing sanctions if it fails to allow in the “hybrid” UN-AU force.

“We must move quickly to a larger, hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force with a single, unified chain of command that conforms to UN standards and practices,” John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, told reporters as he ended a visit to Sudan. “The alternative for Sudan is continued and possibly even intensified international isolation.”

Hilary Benn, the International Development Minister, said yesterday that the situation in Darfur was completely unacceptable. “Progress has been far too slow,” he said in a speech in New York. “We must push for tougher measures . . . including an extended arms embargo including further sanctions on individuals responsible for this nightmare.”

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, and Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the AU commission, met in New York yesterday to work on the three-phase plan outlined last year by the former UN chief Kofi Annan. The UN plan calls for the provision of a “light support package” and “heavy support package” for AU peacekeepers to be followed by the UN-AU “hybrid force”.

Sudan’s decision to allow UN helicopters into Darfur clears the last obstacle to the second stage of the plan. The helicopters will be used to protect peacekeepers, not in an offensive role. “Sudan has accepted the second phase of the agreement of UN support for the African force,” Mr Akol told a news conference in Khartoum.

Oxfam, launching a £5 million appeal for Darfur and neighbouring Chad yesterday, called the area “the greatest concentration of human suffering in the world”.

As part of Oxfam's appeal the war photographer Don McCullin visited the region to document the suffering. You can see his photographs here.

Human toll

500,000 upper estimate of people killed in Darfur

2m have fled their homes

120,000 Chadians also displaced as conflict has spread

230,000 live in overcrowded refugee camps on Chad border

4m dependent on aid to survive

Source: Oxfam; Human Rights Watch; Times archives

Times Recommends

• Should Knox’s trial even have reached the courtroom?
• 'Was it real?' The US bailout nightmare
• Iranian opposition plays the long game