Associated Press
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

PARIS, March 11 -- Russia has approved the deployment of helicopters to bolster a European Union peacekeeping force along Chad's border with the western Darfur region of Sudan, the Russian defense minister said Tuesday.

The deployment would be the first direct Russian contribution to an E.U. military mission, an E.U. official said, though details of the plan were still being discussed and no timeline was announced. The E.U. force's mission to Chad is to help limit possible spillover from fighting in the Darfur region.