The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, is in Sudan today for a meeting with government officials.
Representatives of the Irish aid agency, GOAL, are also meeting Mr Ahern to urge him to persuade the Sudanese government to allow a UN peacekeeping force into the region.
African Union troops will stay in Sudan's Darfur region until the end of 2006, the union's summit has agreed.
The 7,000-strong force is due to remain in the area until the UN has finalised its preparations to deploy in the troubled region.
The AU troops, who are overseeing a ceasefire after three years of conflict, had originally planned to pull out in September.
But UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had asked 'flexibility' on the original plan, promising he would raise funding for the poorly equipped AU force at a UN donors' conference on 18 July.
The conference will also raise funds to improve humanitarian aid to some 2.4 million displaced people in the region after funding shortages forced international aid organisations to halve food rations.
Up to 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur over the past three years.
Mr Annan, has described Darfur as 'one of the worst nightmares in recent history'.
