'The killing and raping goes on'

Mr Annan summoned the council ambassadors in the hope that they will break a deadlock over his proposal to send 10,000 UN peacekeepers to monitor a peace accord which ended years of civil war between the Sudanese government and southern rebels.

Mr Annan hopes to use that resolution focusing on the end of the north-south conflict to ease violence in the western Darfur region, described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

In early February a UN panel found evidence of crimes against humanity in Darfur, but council members still have not been able to agree on action.

Yesterday Mr Annan said the UN, the United States and the European Union would conduct an "on-the spot" assessment mission in Darfur with the African Union, which has troops there, later this week and make recommendations.

The measure would authorise a 10,000-member peacekeeping mission to southern Sudan, consider travel sanctions and an asset freeze on perpetrators of atrocities in Darfur, and decide whether an international court should hear cases of human rights offenders.

"We keep getting reports which show that the killing and raping and burning are still going on," Mr Annan said in a statement.

"I asked them to come and see me because I am worried that we are not moving fast enough to deal with the appalling situation in Darfur," he added.

At least 70,000 people have been killed since last March and more than two million made homeless, mainly by the Arab militia known as Janjaweed, which the UN says are armed by the Sudanese government, but Khartoum denies it.

The main bulwark against atrocities is an AU force, expected to reach 3,000 troops and monitors next month, but that needs outside assistance.

Mr Annan said he had asked if UN peacekeepers should help but "clearly everyone’s first preference is for the AU to stay in the lead in Darfur but for the rest of us to give it more effective help, while keeping other options open".

"We don’t think it would be a good idea to ‘cannibalise’ the UN peacekeeping mission (in the south) for the sake of Darfur," Mr Annan said.

The Khartoum government and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement signed a landmark agreement in January that ended a two-decade-old civil war. But only 5 per cent of the promised assistance has reached the south, thereby endangering the crucial truce, according to UN officials.

Jan Egeland, the UN’s humanitarian relief coordinator currently touring Sudan, said the AU needed 10,000 troops in Darfur. "There should as many AU forces as there are humanitarian workers in Darfur," he told reporters in Khartoum. "The world is only putting an expensive humanitarian plaster on the open wound in Darfur."

In a revised version of the resolution, obtained by media organisations, all mention of threatened oil sanctions against Sudan is dropped.

But a partial arms embargo, as well as travel and an assets freeze against perpetrators of atrocities remain in the document.

Diplomats said the assets freeze might be deleted to get support from Russia, China and Algeria.

Another stumbling point is where to put those responsible for crimes on trial. Most council members prefer the new International Criminal Court in the Hague, which the US opposes. China and Algeria are against any referral to an outside court.

The US president, George Bush, has proposed a new UN-AU tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, but few on the council and elsewhere support the idea.

The Algerian ambassador, Abdallah Baali, told reporters "we are getting closer." But he said there had to be more compromises on sanctions measures and that the ICC issue may be severed from the main resolution, which diplomats said the US wanted.