As European and African leaders have been meeting in Portugal this weekend, some delegates are hoping the unique gathering can offer some hope for the people of Darfur. The United Nations sent a team to the meeting to talk up the need for international cooperation to bring an end to the fighting in western Sudan. On January 1 a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force numbering 26,000 should start work. However, only a third of that figure will actually begin their deployment. The international community has failed to provide sufficient troop numbers, trucks and aerial support. The Sudanese government has also made it extremely difficult for non-African peacekeepers to be included in the force.