Rice will on Monday join representatives of France, China, Russia and several other nations for the meeting held after Sudan bowed to months of pressure and agreed to the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur under the United Nations and the African Union.

"I think that obviously France is taking a new and... energising role in Darfur.... And really we need the energy on Darfur," she told journalists on the plane to Paris.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have made Darfur a top priority amid concern over instability spreading to neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic, two French regional allies.

France last week launched an air bridge to ferry aid to Darfur victims in eastern Chad and is considering a humanitarian force to help some 500,000 internally displaced Chadians and refugees from Darfur.

Kouchner earlier this month visited refugee camps in eastern Chad and spoke of "the world's emotions" about the Darfur conflict in talks with Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir.

Rice said yesterday that she felt China, accused by some critics of helping Khartoum bankroll some of the atrocities in Darfur, had "been more outspoken about the need" to get the peacekeeping force in place.

"But I do think that there is more that will need to be done by China and by everyone to make sure that the Sudanese are finally going to carry through," she said.