The announcement coincided with a visit to Darfur by UN envoy Jan Egeland, who is the first high-ranking UN official to visit the war-torn region since a peace deal was signed on Friday in Abuja.
"The government will assess whether or not it will need the assistance of foreign troops and it may decide to ask for a UN deployment," foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim told AFP.
"But such a decision is the prerogative of the government... What is sure is that no foreign forces will come to Sudan without the consent of the government."
Sudan position moves
Although the spokesman stopped short of saying that the government in Khartoum would request a deployment of UN troops in place of the existing AU force, his statement marked a softening of the government's position.
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has spoken out strongly and repeatedly against any UN deployment in Darfur, insisting that the peacekeeping mission should be carried out by Africans not outsiders.
But in recent days, a number of government officials have raised the possibility of a UN deployment within the framework of a peace accord with the rebels, prompting a strong welcome from Washington.
Ahead of Friday's signing ceremony in Abuja, North Darfur Governor Osman Yussef Kibir had said the government might approve a UN force to oversee implementation of a peace deal.
"We believe that the deployment of UN forces in Darfur after a peace accord is concluded can serve as a guarantee to implementation of the accord," Mr Kibir told reporters last week.
Only the largest faction of the main rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Movement, signed Friday's agreement to end the three-year-old conflict.
A smaller faction of the SLM and another rebel group, have yet to sign up, but the partial agreement marked a major breakthrough in the AU-sponsored peace talks.
Egeland visit
UN relief coordinator Egeland was greeted by a handful of protestors rejecting "international interference" when he stepped off his plane in Nyala in South Darfur.
But Mr Egeland insisted maximum pressure was needed to prevent more tragedies.
"At the moment Darfur is slowly being strangled, it's dying in front of us," he told the BBC from Darfur.
"Half of the population now has become war victims... so I believe, yes, we are turning the corner, but the whole world has to put pressure on the parties," said Mr Egeland, who is due to meet officials in Khartoum.
Since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur launched an uprising against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in early 2003, up to 300,000 people have died of the combined effect of war and famine.