Darfur meeting ends without concrete action

By Francois Murphy and Arshad Mohammed

PARIS (Reuters) - An international meeting on Darfur ended on Monday with promises to support peace-keeping efforts and a political process to stop the violence in western Sudan but with few concrete steps.

The nations at the conference, which included major aid donors, the Group of Eight industrialized nations and Sudan's ally China, offered few details of exactly how they hoped to end a conflict that has dragged on for more than four years.

"We really must redouble our efforts, and I think that that was the spirit of today's conference," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters.

She said Sudan must live up to its promise to accept a "hybrid" force of more than 20,000 United Nations and African Union peace-keepers and accused the government in Khartoum of having repeatedly broken its word to end the violence.

Rice also said Khartoum must face "consequences" -- code for new U.N. sanctions -- if it failed to allow the force in.

The aim of the force is to stop the violence in Darfur, where international experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been expelled from their homes in more than four years of strife. Sudan says 9,000 people have died.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who convened the conference, stressed the importance of finding a political solution, saying: "There will be no humanitarian solution to this conflict. We were talking about politics."

Kouchner backed an U.N.-AU mediation initiative that aims to have all parties to the dispute ready to begin talks around August.

China, which buys oil from Sudan and has been reluctant to press it in public over Darfur, said Khartoum was ready to take part.

"I met with (Sudanese President Omar Hassan) al-Bashir in Sudan. He told me that the Sudanese government actually is ready to come to the negotiating table, at any time, in any place," China's special envoy Liu Guijin told reporters.

'SILENCE KILLS'

The Darfur problem dates to early 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms, accusing the government of not heeding their plight in the remote, arid region. Khartoum mobilized Arab militia to quell the revolt.

Some militia members, known locally as Janjaweed, embarked on a campaign of killing, pillage and rape. Sudan denies it supported the Janjaweed, and calls them outlaws.

Rebels in Darfur, who have split into more than a dozen groups since a 2006 peace deal signed by only one of three rebel factions, have been blamed in recent months for attacks on civilians, including aid workers.

France has shown greater interest in Darfur since President Nicolas Sarkozy took office this year and has proposed sending an international force to neighboring Chad to provide stability for refugee camps for thousands who fled Darfur.