(Adds statement by Save Darfur Coalition)

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS, March 5 (Reuters) - Russia is proposing to supply some of the helicopters the United Nations has been urgently seeking to back up the U.N./African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, Moscow's U.N. ambassador said on Wednesday.

"The most likely scenario of the use of Russian helicopters would be Russia supplying the helicopters with crews from other countries," said envoy Vitaly Churkin.

The United Nations has for months been seeking six attack and 18 transport helicopters to support the planned 26,000-member UNAMID force, which is starting to deploy in the violence-torn Darfur region of western Sudan.

The U.N. peacekeeping department says the helicopters are essential for UNAMID to operate in an area the size of France.

Countries have been slow to respond. The United Nations has accepted four attack helicopters from Ethiopia and is discussing transport helicopters with Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

Churkin said the Russians offered several helicopters that could be used in the desert, but he had no further details.

He also said Russia would send helicopters and crews to work with European Union peacekeepers in neighboring Chad.

The lack of helicopters has been one of many problems slowing deployment of UNAMID, which is replacing an ineffectual 7,000-member AU force to try to end five years of violence involving Sudanese forces, allied militias and Darfur rebel groups. International experts say 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million made homeless by the Darfur violence. Khartoum says the actual figures are far lower.

ON THE GROUND

Richard Williamson, the new U.S. special envoy to Sudan, met U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to speed the deployment.

"I think we're wrong to obsess about the helicopters," he said later. "Our immediate obsession should be to try to get peacekeepers on the ground."

There are more than 9,000 peacekeepers in Darfur. About 3,600 more, from Egypt and Ethiopia, were to arrive in May.

Williamson said on a visit to Sudan last week he had urged President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who wants UNAMID to consist mainly of African troops, to authorize 1,600 Thai and Nepalese troops the United Nations wants to send.

He said that in return, the United States was willing to help African contingents to deploy.

Williamson also said several countries are forming "friends of UNAMID" to help with training and equipment.

Diplomats said the group, to be announced on Thursday, includes the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Tanzania, the European Union and the U.N. peacekeeping department.

The Save Darfur Coalition called on the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to impose targeted sanctions on Sudanese officials responsible for obstructing UNAMID deployment and for crimes against humanity. It said these should include Bashir.

In a letter to Churkin, this month's council president, the activist group's president, Jerry Fowler, said that in March, "Russia has the opportunity to play a crucial role in ensuring that the peacekeeping force is fully deployed more quickly." (Editing by Doina Chiacu)

AlertNet news is provided by