New sanctions threat over Darfur

SUDAN: The UN Security Council may need to meet "within weeks" to consider new sanctions on Sudan unless Khartoum quickly accepts…

SUDAN:The UN Security Council may need to meet "within weeks" to consider new sanctions on Sudan unless Khartoum quickly accepts a UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, a top US diplomat said yesterday.

The council decided unanimously in July to send peacekeepers to stem the violence in Darfur, where some 200,000 people have died in fighting over the last five years.

"The Security Council's credibility is on the line," Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN, told a conference on Darfur at New York's Columbia University.

"If there's no co-operation, the Security Council will need to reconvene to discuss the issue of what to do to bring about compliance."