Sudan dismisses US sanction threat

The US wants to stop arms purchases with oil revenues

Sudan has reacted angrily to a United States resolution that threatens sanctions if the authorities do not negotiate "in good faith" with the rebels within the next six months.

Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said that President George Bush's resolution was putting undue pressure on the authorities, thus hindering peace instead of promoting it.

This law could give the wrong signals to the rebels

Abdel Bassit el Sanosi, Sudan diplomat

The Sudanese Government signed an agreement with the SPLA last week to halt fighting during peace talks.

About two million people have been killed and twice as many displaced since the start of the civil in 1983.

The SPLA has been fighting the authorities to end what it considers as the domination of the Muslim north over the animist and Christian south.

According to the US resolution signed by President Bush on Monday, Washington will move to block multilateral loans to Sudan if it finds that Khartoum has not negotiated in good faith, or "unreasonably interfered with humanitarian efforts" in the south.

'Intimidation'

"It will lead to no result if the US means this (resolution) as a weapon of pressure and intimidation, and it won't lead to peace," Mr Ismail said on Tuesday.

With the resolution, the US will also try to stop Sudan buying weapons with its oil revenues and ask for a UN Security Council arms embargo on the government.

President al-Bashir has warned against US interference

The US treasury has already decided to freeze the financial assets of 12 Sudanese corporations, but Mr Ismail said that most of them did not have assets in the United States.

"I am very confident that most of these organisations, if not all of them, have no assets in the US market that the US administration could freeze," he told Sudanese television.

The 12 companies were added to an existing list of " specially designated nationals" with whom it is illegal for US citizens to conduct business.

'Bad timing'

The Sudanese president had already criticized the US Government for drafting the resolution while it was still before the congress.

"The US administration should understand that the Sudan is not one of the states of the United States," President Omar al-Bashir had said.

Sudan believes that the resolution is particularly untimely.

Bush will evaluate the peace process every six months

"It's bad timing because there are ongoing negotiations, we are discussing fundamental issues," the Sudanese ambassador in Paris, Abdel Bassit el Sanosi, told the BBC's French service.

"This law could give the wrong signals to the rebels... We fear it may be against peace in that it incites the SPLA to intransigence."

Mr Sanosi said that while the resolution applied "unfair" pressure on the government, it promised "rewards" to the rebels if the US president thought the government was not serious about the peace talks.

Under the Sudan Peace Act, President Bush will evaluate the peace process to end the civil war every six months.