French President Nicolas Sarkozy, visiting Syria for the first time, discussed the situation in Darfur with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The four met to discuss the Middle East.
"Although this issue is not highlighted well enough, the settlement of the situation in Sudan's Darfur is of no less importance than the situation in Iraq," President Assad said.
He added that the conference should bring together all parties involved in the Darfur conflict and be held under the aegis of Qatar.
The UN Mission in Sudan was established in 2005 to monitor the peace agreement between the government in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in southern Sudan, which ended the longest-running civil war in Africa.
The UN presence in Sudan has since been expanded to include peacekeeping operations in Darfur. Since 2003, Chad and Sudan have accused each other of inciting conflict on their common border, which is along the west Sudanese region of Darfur.
According to international estimates, more than 300,000 people have been killed and around 2.7 million displaced in the ongoing conflict in Darfur.
