ADDIS ABABA, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Ethiopia and Egypt will each send 850 troops early in the new year to serve with a joint United Nations-African Union force in Sudan's Darfur region, an AU official told Reuters on Monday.

AU troops in Darfur were swapping their green headgear for U.N. blue berets on Monday as the joint force formally takes over peacekeeping duties from the all-African peacekeepers.

However, the handover was largely symbolic and unlikely to bring much immediate change for the people of Darfur.

The plan is for the force ultimately to comprise 20,000 soldiers and 6,000 police, but numbers are currently well below those levels.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has opposed non-African troops, delayed allocating land to the force in Darfur, demanded the right to disable the mission's communications during "security operations" and refused night flights.

Rights groups have also criticised the international community -- mainly Western nations -- for refusing to provide 24 helicopters, seen as vital for the mission to function effectively in the vast region.

"Ethiopia and Egypt will send a battalion, numbering 850 troops each , as the first batch of their contribution to the UN-AU Joint African Peacekeeping force in Darfur," Assane Ba, spokesman for the AU Peace and Security Commission told Reuters.

"Troops from Asian countries are also expected to be deployed in Darfur early in the new year," he added.

Ethiopia has pledged to deploy up to 5,000 troops to the joint mission.

The conflict flared in February 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government, saying Khartoum discriminated against non-Arab farmers and neglected the region. Khartoum mobilised Arab militia to help quell the revolt.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in Darfur with 2.5 million forced to flee their homes by looting, killing and rape. (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; writing by Keith Weir; editing by Janet Lawrence)

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