France hosted a meeting of senior officials from more than a dozen countries yesterday aimed at providing funds and other support for international efforts to stabilise Sudan’s violent Darfur region.

Sudan, which did not send a representative to the Paris meeting, agreed earlier this month to a combined United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police, but many diplomats doubt it will keep its word.

The aim of the force is to stop the violence in Darfur, where international experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been expelled from their homes in more than four years of strife. Sudan says 9,000 people have died. Delegations from the world’s top aid donors, members of the Group of Eight industrialised nations and powerful Sudan ally China are due to discuss the situation before moving on to “international support for the reconstruction of Darfur”, according to the meeting’s agenda.

Sudan’s neighbour Chad, which has seen the Darfur conflict spill across its borders, will also be on the agenda. “We need is to assure the security of the Chadian zone, which we will do,” French Defence Minister Herve Morin told France Inter radio. France has taken a closer interest in Darfur since President Nicolas Sarkozy took office, pledging more work on human rights. France’s financial aid to Darfur however remains low compared with other European powers.