NAIROBI (Xinhua): The head of United Nations peacekeeping operations has began a week-long visit to Sudan, where the world organization currently has two operations -- one to support the 2005 north-south peace deal and the other to quell the violence that has plagued the western region of Darfur since 2003.

The familiarization tour for Alain Le Roy is his first since being appointed as UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations in August.

"Le Roy is scheduled to arrive in El Fasher, North Darfur on Wednesday as the first leg of a visit that will also take him to Nyala in South Darfur and El Geneina in West Darfur," the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said in a statement received here Tuesday.

After arriving in the capital, Khartoum, Le Roy has met with the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Ashraf Qazi, and other senior officials from UNMIS, which is tasked with supporting the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

"During his tour to what will be, upon full deployment, the largest peacekeeping operation in UN history, Mr. Leroy will be visiting UNAMID battalions and team sites, several camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), UN Agencies, Programs and Funds," it said.

Signed by the Khartoum Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in 2005, the agreement ended the country's long-running north-south civil war.

The UN peacekeeping chief is also scheduled to visit Kadugli, Abyei, Juba and El Obeid, and meet with leadership of the government of National Unity and the government of southern Sudan and other key interlocutors.