Receiving delegation of the AU committee headed by the South Africa Foreign Minister, Dr Nkosazana Zuma at the Republican Palace here Friday, Taha said the committee was a model for African solidarity and co-operation.

Zuma heads the AU Ministerial Committee on Post-Conflict Reconstruction in the Sudan, which includes foreign ministers from Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.

The visit was envisaged last month when the committee met in Cape Town, South Africa and decided to travel to Khartoum in a bid to understand the country's requirements.

During Friday's meeting, Taha briefed the ministers on the steps adopted by the government in Khartoum to implement the peace agreement signed with the southern Sudan People Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in Nairobi, Kenya on 9 January 2005.

Zuma affirmed that African countries and the AU were keen to see the implementation of that peace agreement so as to stabilise and promote development in the country.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council unanimously approved the deployment of 10,000 peacekeeping troops, 700 members of the civilian police in southern Sudan for an initial period of six months.

The force will support the peace agreement that ended more than two decades of civil strife, which killed least 1.5 million people and displaced more than 4 million others.