NATO defense ministers, who met in Brussels for a two-day meeting, gave on Thursday the green light to an operation to airlift extra African troops to Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

The action, to kick off on July 1, is the alliance's first mission on the African continent.

"The situation in that region is appalling, and we must do all that is in our power, in coordination with other organizations starting with the EU, to assist the African Union," said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at a press conference during the meeting.

The North Atlantic Council, the decision-making body of NATO, decided on May 22 to offer logistic assistance to the mission of the African Union (AU) in Darfur.

However, the Sudanese government rejected any NATO troops on its soil, and the AU would play a leading role in the mission.

NATO would also have to cooperate with the European Union in the assistance.

"We cooperate, we coordinate, while the African Union is definitely the leader," De Hoop Scheffer said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2005)