(Adds details) BEIJING, May 8 (Reuters) - China confirmed on Tuesday it would send military engineers for a planned U.N. peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur region, marking another step in Beijing's efforts to balance pressures over the strife-torn region. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the detachment would help implement the "Annan" peace plan, which proposes putting U.N. forces alongside the African Union forces already in Darfur who have failed to halt widespread bloodshed. Jiang did not give any specifics about numbers or the date of deployment. But Washington said on Monday that Beijing would send about 300 engineers for the "hybrid" force to try to halt the violence, which the United Nations says has killed about 200,000 people and displaced some 2.5 million since 2003. "China is willing to work with the rest of the international community for peace and stability in Darfur at an early date," she told a regular news conference in Beijing. China has faced competing pressure from Sudan and Western governments, and has recently sought to counter Western accusations that it has abetted what rights activists have called genocide in ethnically-mixed Darfur. China buys much of Sudan's oil, and as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council has resisted proposals to send U.N. peacekeepers without Sudan's consent. But Beijing has also nudged Sudan to accept peacekeepers and in April sent an envoy to inspect refugee camps in Darfur. The conflict in the ethnically-mixed region of western Sudan ignited when rebel groups took up arms against the government, accusing it of neglect. The U.N. Security Council has approved the hybrid force of troops and police to try to stop the violence. Sudan recently agreed to a "heavy support package" for the African Union forces that would include some 3,500 personnel as partial implementation of the plan. Washington has urged China to use its influence to induce Sudan to accept full implementation. Jiang fended off questions about reports that China was continuing to sell arms to Sudan, saying that China has strict rules about its arms exports. She said some activists' accusations were "totally unreasonable" and they were "exploiting the Olympic Games to put pressure on China". Some critics of China's policies have urged a boycott of Beijing's 2008 Olympics.
