Canada is making plans to send peacekeeping troops to the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan by summer's end.

The head of Canada's military returned recently from meeting with leaders of the African Union peacekeeping force that Canadian units would support.

"This is a complex and relatively dangerous environment," Gen. Rick Hillier told CBC News.

A refugee in a Darfur camp. (AP file photo)

Hillier said he has more than 30 officers working on the project but was mum on the specifics until he presents several options this week to Defence Minister Bill Graham.

The minister wants military intervention to be only one part of an overall plan for the northeastern African country.

"We cannot invade Sudan. It requires United Nations action ... it requires political as well as military and aid matters," Graham told CBC.

The Darfur region of Sudan.

The two-year-old Darfur conflict, stemming from the fallout of a peace deal to end the country's decades-old civil war, has driven about two million people from their villages to live in camps and killed 300,000 others.

• INDEPTH: Crisis Zone: Darfur, Sudan

Canada has already marked $20 million in aid to the African Union, a continent-wide association of states that will lead peacekeeping in Darfur.

Peacekeepers must overcome the obstacles of few roads and runways in an area the size of France.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has pledged a greater Canadian commitment to Darfur and was expected to make an announcement within days.

He said Wednesday the conflict "is one of the most important tests as to how the West is prepared to come to the aid of Africa."

Martin met earlier this week with David Kilgour, a former Liberal MP who now sits as an independent.

Kilgour is a strong proponent of sending Canadian troops to Darfur. Kilgour and the prime minister denied the meeting was an attempt to prop up the Liberals' shaky minority government.