African leaders meeting in the Ethiopian capital are considering sending troops to Sudan's troubled Darfur region to protect one million civilians who have fled marauding Arab militias.
Four African presidents, including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, the new AU president, were due to report to the full summit in Addis Ababa by tomorrow, a senior AU official said.
"They have established a committee to discuss expanding the mandate of the AU to protecting the civilians in Darfur," he said.
The AU's Peace and Security Council has already recommended sending 300 armed soldiers to Darfur to protect AU monitors of a shaky ceasefire signed between Khartoum and rebels in April.
Sudan said it would not block the deployment.
Officials have suggested the troops would give confidence to hundreds of thousands of people caught up in widespread looting and burning of villages by Arab "Janjaweed" militia in Sudan's far west.
The Peace and Security Council urged Khartoum earlier in the day urgently to "neutralise" the Janjaweed. Sudan has said it regards the militias as outlaws and has promised to try to disarm them.