Brussels, 13/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and EU High Representative for the CFSP Javier Solana held a discussion on sending an EU force to protect the refugee camps in Chad towards which the people of Darfur were converging. “During my meeting with President Sarkozy, we talked about the possibility of deploying rapidly, in cooperation with the president of Chad, a temporary European Union force tasked with protecting refugee camps in Chad,” Mr Solana said in an interview with French daily La Croix which appeared on Friday. The European troops would remain in position until the African Union-United Nations hybrid force was deployed, Mr Solana said. At their meeting in Brussels on 23 July, EU foreign ministers will discuss ways to support the hybrid force, which has been accepted in principle by the Sudanese president, but has still to be approved by the UN Security Council. “Some European countries are ready to take part in this essentially African force, which will be stronger and more robust than the one that exists today,” Mr Solana added. (ab)