US drops call for UN sanctions over Darfur

The United States watered down proposals for a UN resolution yesterday after Muslim states refused to threaten sanctions against Sudan for failing to curb Arab militias accused of ethnic cleansing.

The US, backed by Britain, dropped the word "sanctions" from a draft resolution in order to secure broad agreement on a text that could be adopted by the UN Security Council today. The move will give Sudan more time to comply with demands from the UN, which described the situation in the western region of Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

African states, which held a summit in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, yesterday, want to take the lead in resolving the crisis in Darfur that has led to up to one million black African Sudanese being chased from their homes by Arab militias.

"They don't want the Europeans to take over," a UN source said in Accra. Britain's offer of troops has been rejected by Khartoum, but so far only 80 African Union (AU) observers have been deployed in Darfur, where attacks by the Janjaweed militias have continued despite a ceasefire. The US Congress has called the crisis a genocide, but has not "put its money where its mouth is," the UN source said.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, told the AU chairman, Alpha Konare of Mali, yesterday that the AU needed logistical help from the West.