The European Union is considering sending troops to the new peacekeeping force approved by the UN Security Council for war-torn Darfur.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said European countries were looking at whether to contribute troops.
It comes just hours after the Council voted unanimously to create a 26,000-strong joint force made up of UN and African Union soldiers.
Mr Solana underlined that the EU had been providing money, advisers and planning to the smaller African Union force that is already on the ground.
The Security Council yesterday voted unanimously to create a much larger hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping mission for Darfur.
Later this week, a meeting organised jointly by the AU and the United Nations in Tanzania, is to lay the groundwork with the non-signatory rebels for renewed negotiations with Khartoum.
In a later statement issued in Brussels, Solana urged all those invited to the meeting to 'participate constructively' and welcomed the unanimous UN Security Council decision to authorise the UN-AU hybrid mission in Darfur.
Meanwhile, China has welcomed the UN Security Council's decision to create the new peacekeeping force and has called on the international community to help resolve the conflict.
China has come under criticism in the past over its relations with the regime in Sudan, however, the country went along with the council in a unanimous vote yesterday approving a joint UN-African Union peace force in Darfur.
China is Sudan's biggest arms supplier and oil customer and Beijing has previously urged the international community not to pressure the government.
However, the US has taken a tough stance toward Khartoum even though it also backed the resolution and worked closely with the lead co-sponsors of Britain and France.
The US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, has warned that if Sudan does not comply the US will move for the swift adoption of unilateral and multilateral measures against Khartoum.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the resolution was historic and unprecedented.
The AU, whose contingent of peacekeepers has struggled to restore stability in Darfur over the past three years, voiced relief at the UN's decision.
At least 200,000 people have died in Sudan's western Darfur region, and two million more driven from their homes, since February 2003, according to the UN.
Sudan says the figures are exaggerated.
