US envoy in plea for Darfur force

African Union patrols have suffered from lack of resources

Senior US diplomat Jendayi Frazer has met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir after extending her stay in Sudan.

The US assistant secretary of state flew to Khartoum at the weekend to urge President Bashir to accept United Nations peacekeepers for Darfur.

Earlier he said he was too busy to see her, and rejected the existing African Union force becoming a UN mission.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has warned Darfur faces a new humanitarian disaster owing to a lack of security.

Some 200,000 people have been killed according to the United Nations and more than 2m driven from their homes in three years of fighting in Darfur.

'Go home'

Any state that sponsors this draft resolution will be regarded as assuming a hostile attitude against the Sudan Ghazi Salah Eldin Atabani Sudan's ruling party chairman

Mrs Frazer, who was due to have left Khartoum on Monday, eventually met Mr Bashir on Tuesday.

No details of what was discussed have been made public, and Ms Frazer is returning to Washington.

She brought with her a letter from President George W Bush aiming to persuade the Sudanese government to authorise the deployment of a UN peace force in Darfur.

Her visit began badly on Saturday when she was met at the airport by an angry mob shouting "go home".

On Monday, a presidential adviser handed Mrs Frazer a message from Mr Bashir in which he repeated his refusal to accept a UN force.

Warning

Mr Egeland called for "immediate action" on the political front, to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe threatening "massive loss of life".

He was speaking as the UN Security Council considered a US and UK plan to send about 17,500 UN troops to Darfur.

Sudan boycotted the Security Council session.

In May, the Sudanese government agreed a peace deal with a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, one of the main regional rebel groups.

But Mr Egeland warned the Security Council that since the peace deal there had been a dramatic increase in violence, sexual abuse and displacement in Darfur, with the possibility of returning to "all-out war".

Own force

The US envoy to the UN, John Bolton, said he wanted a new Security Council resolution "in the next couple of days" authorising a UN force to be sent to Darfur.

Egeland said violence, sexual abuse and displacement had increased

The force, envisaged to encompass some 17,500 UN troops plus some 3,000 UN police, would replace some 7,000 African Union troops due to leave Darfur on 1 October.

Mr Bolton told reporters the main sticking point was the lack of consent from the Sudanese government.

The Sudanese government wants to send at least 10,000 of its own troops to Darfur, and human rights organisations allege it is already flying soldiers into the region.

The organisations say allowing Khartoum to send in its own force could see an escalation of the violence in the region.

But Sudanese National Congress Party chairman Ghazi Salah Eldin Atabani said the plan for a UN force would "impose complete tutelage" on Sudan.

"Any state that sponsors this draft resolution will be regarded as assuming a hostile attitude against the Sudan," he said.