Sudan said yesterday it was ready to welcome a UN commission due in Khartoum next week to investigate allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the troubled Darfur region.

Justice Minister Ali Osman Yassin told Al Rai Al Aam newspaper that he was officially notified by the United Nations on Thursday that the commission would arrive on November 6.

A five-member UN panel has been created by Secretary General Kofi Annan to look into allegations of genocide and investigate reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in Darfur.

Khartoum's response to the rebellion was to arm and support the Janjaweed, an Arab militia which has been accused of committing massive human rights abuses murder, mass rape and the burning of villages against Darfur's black African people.

Annan was asked to set up a commission in a UN Security Council resolution adopted last month after the United States said it believed genocide had been committed in Darfur, scene of what the UN describes as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

In Khartoum, Yassin said members of the commission would meet President Omar Al Bashir and other ministers.

"The government will welcome the commission and provide it with all facilities and assistance it requires for discharging its mission in Darfur," said Yassin. Meanwhile, the African Union said yesterday the United States Air Force will fly 237 Rwandan troops to the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan to join a tiny African force seeking to stabilise the area. The Rwandan troops will fly out today to join 50 Nigerian troops deployed in Darfur, the African Union said in a statement.

The new soldiers are the first of planned reinforcements for the African Union Mission in the Sudan, or AMIS.

"These new deployments, together with the 310 military personnel from Nigeria and Rwanda the AU has already sent to Darfur earlier in August, will bring the military component of the AMIS to 597 troops," the 53-member organisation said.

More troops from Nigeria and other African countries are expected to be deployed in Darfur in the following days to strengthen the mission to 3,320 people by the end of November.

The mission will include 2,341 troops and military observers, 815 civilian police officers as well as civilian personnel, the African Union said.

The crisis Darfur began in February 2003, when rebels launched attacks on the Arab-dominated government, claiming discrimination in the distribution of scarce resources.

At least 70,000 people have been killed in the region and as many as 1.5 million people have fled their homes since then, according to estimates by the United Nations.