The decision comes after an African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa that discussed the future of the AU’s cash-strapped mission.
"The council decided to support in principle a transition of AMIS (African Union Mission in Sudan) towards a UN mission... in the promotion of peace and security," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said reading a PSC statement.
In the statement, the PSC "took note of the decision that Sudan is prepared to accept the deployment of a UN mission after and as part of the conclusion of a peace agreement in Abuja."
The agreement has been welcomed by UN chief Kofi Annan and has said he was encouraged by the fact that Khartoum seems to be "softening its position".
"We are pleased with the decision... and look forward to working with them and the government of Sudan in ensuring that there is effective security on the ground in Darfur," he told reporters in New York.
"We are pressing ahead with our contingency planning and we hope to be ready to work with the African Union as we move forward to the implementation of the anticipated decision by the (UN) Security Council that we push ahead with the transition," Mr Annan said.
Earlier in the week thousands of Sudanese protestors took to the capital angry at what they described as UN and United States interference in domestic affairs.
The PSC also extended the mandate of the 7,800-strong AU Darfur force until September 30 this year, during which the "international community has the obligation to finance this peacekeeping mission."
Darfur conflict
Khartoum's soldiers, militias backed by government troops and rebels are embroiled in a conflict which since its outbreak in 2003 has killed up to an estimated 300,000 people and displaced two million more.
Deployed in 2004, the AU force has been largely unable to contain the escalating bloodshed in the troubled western region of Darfur, hampered by poor funding and inadequate resources.
But US Ambassador John Bolton injected a note of caution and has said UN diplomats had only fragmentary information.
"Certainly it is correct to say, as we understand it, that the Peace and Security Council reaffirmed its decision that there should be a transition to a UN mission in Darfur," Mr Bolton said.
"But I think that before we comment further it is important that we, the United States and other (Security) Council members have a chance to review exactly what the African Union said," he said.
The pan-African group has been under intense international pressure to turn over Darfur peacekeeping to the United Nations but Sudan said any such action would spell the end of AU-mediated peace talks on Darfur.