The UN Security Council decided Tuesday to extend by 12 months the joint peacekeeping operations in Sudan's Darfur region. The 12-month extension was to begin Wednesday for the African Union-UN mission, which is composed of about 20,000 military personnel and more than 3,700 police officers, deployed since 2003. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recommended the extensions, but he also asked that the council draw down the number of troops and police officers while upgrading the military equipment of the remaining forces. "The reconfigured force, although smaller in number, would be better equipped and more rapidly deployable to address emerging threats to civilians than at present," Ban said. He called for reducing the military personnel to 16,200 and police force to 2,300. The mission cost about 1.6 billion dollars to maintain last year. He said the mission's main task of protecting the civilians remains a priority because no inclusive settlement to the conflict has been achieved.