KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) – The Sudanese government told a high-level Security Council delegation Tuesday that it would not give immediate approval for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, but was willing to keep talking about the takeover from African Union troops.

Senior representatives of the 15 Security Council nations met Tuesday with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Foreign Minister Lam Akol and members of Parliament on a visit to the capital Khartoum. During closed door meetings, they discussed at length the transfer of peacekeeping responsibilities from a 7,000-strong African Union mission that has been unable to quell fighting in Darfur to a more muscular U.N. force.

“There has been no agreement and discussions continue,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who is leading the U.N. mission, said of a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur which the U.S. is strongly in favor of.

Standing beside Akol at a news conference, Jones Parry said: “Where I think we are agreed, minister, is that the objective of the mission is to establish the conditions for a transition to a United Nations force, and if that can be done with satisfaction of the government, then it will happen.”

Akol said the government had “been assured” that any U.N. role in Darfur must be discussed with Sudanese leaders. He said the idea would be explored further next week in talks with a joint U.N.-African Union team that is scheduled to arrive in Khartoum on Friday. The joint mission will then head to Darfur to make a technical assessment for a possible U.N. takeover, report back to the Sudanese government and its own leaders, Akol said.

“What we are saying, and what we have been saying all along, is that the government of Sudan has nothing against the U.N., and that whatever role for the U.N. must be discussed with the Sudanese government. We have been assured of that.”

The Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel group signed a peace agreement in May and the Security Council delegation is pressing for full implementation of the accord. Two smaller rebel groups are refusing to sign the peace deal.

“We came with words of encouragement and some tough love,” U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jackie Sanders said. “I think we made our positions clear. We were a very united Security Council today which was a real plus.”

Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted in early 2003 when rebel groups made up of ethnic Africans rose up against the Arab-led Khartoum government. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the Janjaweed who have been accused of some of the worst atrocities. The Sudanese government denies backing the Janjaweed, but agreed to rein them in under the May peace agreement. Violence, though, has only increased since the accord.

Nearly 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in three years of fighting.

The government’s opposition to the U.N. force was fueled last month when a council resolution to spur planning for a handover was adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which allows military action, sparking fears of U.N. intervention in Sudan.

Jones Parry said the council assured the president that a U.N. takeover of peacekeeping in Darfur “could only happen with the consent of the government.”

“There is no question of an intervention force,” Jones Parry said.

Still, it could be months before U.N. troops are in place. The security situation, meanwhile, is worrying, with myriad armed groups apparently jockeying for position ahead of being forced to lay down arms following the adoption last month of a peace treaty. International humanitarian groups who say Darfur’s civilians are at risk and their own aid programs threatened say violent criminals also are taking advantage of the general chaos.

In Geneva, U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday Janjaweed militia are becoming more systematic in their cross-border attacks from Darfur into Chad and added that violence against Chadian civilians is escalating.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees called on both Chad and Sudan to step up border security to prevent further attacks by militia, who are increasingly uprooting civilians from their homes and sometimes killing them, spokesman Ron Redmond said.

Some 50,000 native Chadians have been forced from their homes by the violence in recent months and the insecurity also is threatening more than 200,000 Darfur refugees currently in Chad, according to the agency.

Redmond said victims have attributed the attacks to Sudanese janjaweed militia, sometimes abetted by different Chadian tribes. Chadian rebels have their bases along the border and Chad’s government accuses Sudan of backing them, while Sudan accuses Chad of backing Darfur rebels.

AP-ES-06-06-06 2058EDT

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