KHARTOUM, August 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Eight days before the expiry of the UN Security Council deadline on Darfur, Sudan said it would disarm militias in the troubled area gradually, and signed a deal with the United Nations saying it would not force refugees to return home.

"The collection of weapons will be gradual and begin with an initiative for reconciliation among the tribes through the native administrations," Sudanese Interior Minister Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein said, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported Saturday, August 21.

The minister, however, gave no timeframe for the "reconciliation" initiative.

Hussein said new bodies would be set up to have wide-ranging powers in "administrative, security and judicial matters."

The embattled Khartoum government, meanwhile, signed Saturday an agreement with the United Nations to ensure the voluntary return of displaced Darfuris to their homes, Reuters news agency reported.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the agreement on internally displaced people (IDPs) would help reassure the international community on the situation in the troubled area.

"Of course this first of all will revoke any queries about whether the return of the IDPs is voluntary or involuntary. We have an international organization who will supervise the return," Ismail told reporters.

He added that the Sudanese government has started to form a native administration in Darfur to work in coordination with the local government until local elections are held.

The Foreign Minister said that the Sudanese government has deployed police forces and redeployed army troops in Darfur to prevent militia attacks on the refugees camps.

Reports about the number of victims of violence in Darfur vary deeply and range from 10 to 50 thousand, and 2.2 million are reportedly in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter, due to the attacks of the armed militias on civilians in the area.