U.S. presses Sudan, experts query peacekeeper plan

By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council may need to meet within weeks to consider new sanctions against Sudan unless Khartoum quickly accepts a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, a top U.S. diplomat said on Monday.

But some experts at a conference on Darfur said the peacekeeping force could be a waste of money or even an "occupation" force, and they urged more effort to address extreme poverty as the cause of the Darfur crisis.

The Security Council decided unanimously in July to send peacekeepers to stem the violence in Darfur, a vast western province of Sudan where some 200,000 people have died in 4-1/2 years of fighting.

But now Sudan was throwing up obstacles and failing to meet its commitments, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said.

"The Security Council's credibility is on the line," he told the conference at New York's Columbia University.

"If there's no cooperation, the Security Council will need to reconvene to discuss the issue of what to do to bring about compliance," he said, criticizing Sudan for "foot-dragging."

Khalilzad said the world should be "unrelenting" in pressing Sudan, which has agreed in principle to the force of 26,000 troops.

"If the Sudanese government fails to meet its obligations, (the Security Council) should be willing to respond by increasing pressure and consider imposing sanctions," he said.