But the vehicles have been sitting in Senegal for three months because Sudan's government feared the southern rebels would get their hands on them.

Soldiers from the African Union have been training on the vehicles in Senegal and they should be in use by the end of the year, Prime Minister Paul Martin's special advisory team on Sudan said on Tuesday.

The team includes former general Romeo Dallaire and Ambassador Robert Fowler, the prime minister's personal representative to Africa.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the two-year-old conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur. Millions have fled from their homes.