A Sudanese woman walks away after receiving relief food in the Kalma refugee camp in Darfur (AFP)

WASHINGTON , May 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United States warned it would press for U.N. sanctions against Sudan if the East African country failed to settle the crisis in the western region of Darfur , a senior U.S. official said.

The United States is "preparing the ground for a (U.N.) Security Council resolution at some point if the government does not do what it has to do on Darfur," the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday, May 21, on condition of anonymity.

Washington is "pushing for a very strong Presidential statement" on Darfur in the Security Council next week as a warning to Sudan , the official said.

"If there was a Security Council resolution it would be something that would have to have teeth," he said.

"It would basically call the government to take a number of specific steps, including stopping Janjawid (pro-Khartoum militias) violence, facilitating unrestricted humanitarian access, full cooperation with the international monitoring.

"And then it would have consequences if that didn't happen, which in our view would very possibly be some form of sanctions".

'Hard'

The U.S. official acknowledged, however, that it would be hard to convince fellow Security Council members to pass sanctions against the Sudanese government.

"There is still a lot of resistance to that," he said.

But the threat of sanctions could have a strong political impact on the Sudanese government, which wants to improve its international image, the official said.

The U.S. official said he was concerned the Darfur conflict could hurt a long-awaited peace agreement in the 21-year-old conflict opposing what he termed "the Arab, Muslim north to the black and mainly Christian or animist south".

Although an agreement could be reached in one or two weeks, he said, "the Darfur has risen in such a way as to complicate the North-South process, and really threatens to destroy that process if it is not resolved".

The conflict in Darfur started in February 2003, when rebels took up arms accusing the government of neglecting the poor area and arming Arab militias to loot and burn the villages of ethnic Africans.

Khartoum denies the charge, saying the militias are outlaws.

'Skeptical'

The American official said Washington is "skeptical" about the significance of Khartoum 's recent decision to lift restrictions on visas and passes for aid workers.

The U.S. denounced Monday, May 17, the Sudanese government for issuing U.S. relief workers with "useless" travel permits for Darfur that effectively prevent them from leaving Khartoum.

The State Department said 11 members of a U.S. disaster response team now in the capital had been granted three-day passes to visit Darfur after intense pressure from Washington but noted that the gesture was hollow because the Sudanese government requires 72 hours advance notice before traveling.

But Sudan said Thursday, May 20, it will temporarily suspend the need for travel permits for aid workers going to Darfur , where U.N. officials say one of the world's worst humanitarian crises is unfolding.

U.S. officials have complained that access to nearly one million people displaced by fighting in Darfur has been prevented by delays in bureaucratic procedures and time limits on Sudanese visas and travel permits to the remote region bordering Chad .

And U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in April the international community must be ready to take decisive action against Sudan , including possible military force, if Khartoum denies aid workers access to Darfur .

The conflict in Darfur has uprooted a million people from their homes, according to U.N. figures, and driven 100,000 civilians to seek shelter across the border in impoverished Chad since it broke out.

On May 7, the U.N. described Darfur as a region gripped by a "reign of terror", where the pro-government forces are committing massive human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity, as the U.S. accuse the Khartoum government of ethnic cleansing there.