The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said last night he expects to file a series of charges of atrocities against civilians in Sudan's Darfur region but gave no timetable.
His office had gathered evidence of thousands of killings of civilians - including "a significant number of large-scale massacres" - and hundreds of rapes, Luis Moreno Ocampo told the UN Security Council.
He also outlined significant obstacles to gathering needed evidence and getting testimony, including limited access to Khartoum and a lack of access to Darfur, where violence continues.
No charges would be announced until they were approved by the court's judges, said Mr Moreno Ocampo. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in three years of conflict in Sudan's remote western Darfur region.
The United States has called the crisis genocide. The mainly Arab militia known as Janjaweed are said to be behind the most of the murder, pillaging and rape in Darfur.
Sudan's government is accused of unleashing the Janjaweed on farming villages in Darfur after rebels launched a campaign for greater autonomy.
The government has formed a special court in Darfur to look into the atrocities. Under the Rome Treaty creating the ICC, The Hague-based court cannot prosecute suspects who have already been tried in fair trials in their home countries.
But Mr Moreno Ocampo said the Sudanese court was not looking at any of the cases the ICC was focusing on in its search for those "bearing greatest responsibility for the crimes."
"It does not appear that the national authorities have investigated or prosecuted, or are investigating or prosecuting, cases that are or will be the focus of our attention," he told the 15-nation UN body.
Human Rights Watch charged last week that Khartoum had set up the court to head off the ICC investigation and had tried just 13 criminal cases unconnected to Darfur since the court was formed in June 2005.