(Previous ADDIS ABABA, adds colour, Ban Ki-moon comments)

By Ibrahim Hamdy

EL-FASHER, Sudan, Dec 31 (Reuters) - A joint United Nations-African Union (AU) force took charge of peacekeeping in Darfur on Monday, seeking to end almost five years of fighting in the western Sudanese region.

The force replaces a struggling AU mission. The plan is for it ultimately to comprise 20,000 soldiers and 6,000 police, but numbers are currently only about a third of those levels.

AU troops swapped their green headgear for U.N. blue berets to mark the handover at a ceremony held in front of a big crowd and amid tight security at a base in El-Fasher in the north of the region.

However, the change was unlikely to bring much immediate change for the residents of Darfur where an estimated 200,000 people have died.

The joint force was approved by the U.N. Security Council on July, 31, but its deployment has proved problematic.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has opposed non-African troops, delayed allocating land to the force, 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.

BAN DEMANDS MORE

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for more personnel and equipment to help transport peacekeepers by land and air.

"If we are to have a real impact on the situation on the ground within the first half of 2008, these deployments must happen far more swiftly than they have done so far," he said in a statement read out for him at the ceremony.

He also called for a genuine ceasefire and for all parties to return to talks. The latest round of talks was held in Libya in October, but quickly fizzled out when major rebel groups boycotted them .

"I therefore urge all the parties to cease all military action and turn their energies, with the support of the AU-UN mediation, to the substance of the negotiations as soon as possible, and to come to the negotiating table to settle their differences," he added. There are currently around 7,000 troops and 1,200 police in the AU force.

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 in Addis Ababa on Monday.

"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. (Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations and Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Matthew Jones)

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