Sudan will be getting about $250,000 in military equipment from Canada, but there are no plans to send our troops there, according to Defence Minister Bill Graham.

"We will be supplying them with about a quarter of a million dollars worth of equipment that they specifically requested," Graham said.

The equipment includes vests, helmets and other gear for African Union troops patrolling the troubled Darfur region, which the United Nations has described as the site of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

About one million people in Darfur have been displaced, and some 30,000 more have been killed.

The crisis started when two African rebel groups took up arms last February. They said they were being discriminated against by Khartoum's Arab-dominated government.

Since then, Khartoum has faced allegations of backing the Janjaweed rebel militia. The Sudanese capital has repeatedly denied it supports the group.

Pro-government militia in Sudan started an anti-insurgency campaign, which led to the widespread destruction of villages and the current humanitarian crisis.

"There is no immediate plan to deploy troops there," Graham told reporters. "The international community has generally considered that it is important that this matter be managed by the African Union forces that are there."

Graham said Canadian troops have been stretched too thin with peacekeeping commitments in Afghanistan and the Balkans.

"There's no question that our troops have been extraordinarily actively engaged for the past several years," he said.

There are currently 650 Canadian peacekeepers left in Bosnia. Most of them are scheduled to leave by December.

Graham said that American and European officials weren't talking about putting troops into Sudan just now.

UN's Security Council had given Khartoum a deadline of July 30 to show that it was taking action to curb the militias. That deadline passed and a UN report released Wednesday said the country has made "some progress" but still had a long way to go in providing security the "terrorized and traumatized" Sudanese who have fled their homes.

The UN called for a bigger international monitoring force in Sudan, but made no mention of punitive measures or sanctions.