U.S. skeptical over Sudan's stand on Darfur

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States was dubious on Friday that Sudan's government was more open to letting international peacekeepers into Darfur and held out the threat of impending new U.S. sanctions against Khartoum.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States was seeking more information following an announcement by Saudi Arabia on Thursday that Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had agreed to allow U.N. logistic support to help African Union forces already in Darfur.

"We are going to follow up and see what, if anything, might be built upon from the conversations in Riyadh," McCormack said, referring to meetings Bashir had in Riyadh with Saudi, U.N. and African officials. "We want to understand if there is anything that could be seen as a change of posture."

"I have to caution you that to this point the Sudanese have not given any indication, any real public indication, that they have dropped any preconditions (for a force)," he added.

Bashir has long resisted the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to the vast western province of Darfur, where Washington says a genocide has taken place through government support for nomadic militia groups. Sudan denies this.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in the fighting and about 2.5 million displaced by the conflict.

A concern of Sudan's government is that U.N. peacekeepers will be used to round up officials suspected of committing atrocities in Darfur, which McCormack said was not the aim of the new force.

"We have sought to assure the Sudanese that this is not a force that is focused on activities in Khartoum but is focused on what is happening in Darfur," said McCormack.

The United States is expected, possibly within the next few days, to announce expanded sanctions against Sudan, including a further limit on dollar transactions and a travel and banking ban on three more individuals, one of them a rebel leader.

Asked whether he thought Bashir was trying to stall these sanctions by appearing more open to the hybrid force, McCormack said he did not know what the Sudanese leader's calculations were but he made clear sanctions were still an option.

"It is a fact that we are looking at what other diplomatic levers we might apply to the situation to get a change in view from the Sudanese," said McCormack, adding that an announcement was not likely on Friday.

Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for the group Human Rights Watch, said it appeared that Bashir was once again using stalling tactics. The United States, he said, should act now and not wait.

"Nothing is going to happen until they roll out the sanctions," Malinowski said.