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The United States and Britain are considering enforcing a no-fly zone over Sudan's war-torn Darfur region if the Khartoum Government does not allow a United Nations-led peacekeeping force in, the State Department said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair raised the no-fly zone option during a meeting last week with President George W. Bush amid growing frustration with Sudan's refusal to comply with past agreements on the peacekeepers' deployment, department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"Prime Minister Blair talked about it as an idea," McCormack said of the no-fly zone, which would aim to halt the use of Sudanese Government planes and helicopters to support attacks on villages in Darfur.
He said Bush was very concerned about a resurgence of violence in the vast western Sudanese region, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced during nearly four years of fighting between ethnic African rebels and militia allied to the Arab-led Government.
"The President is going to consider what options he thinks are necessary in order to address the grave situation there," McCormack said, adding that the move to consider tougher measures was motivated by a "lack of forward movement on the diplomacy right now combined with an uptick in violence" in Darfur.
The Financial Times reported earlier that Blair had urged Bush to take coercive steps against Khartoum and that options under consideration by the US Administration included air strikes and a naval blockade - measures advocated by some human rights groups and former US officials.
McCormack said the newspaper report was "way out ahead" of any actual planning for military action and stressed that "our focus right now is on diplomatic means".
But if the violence continues and Sudan persists in its refusal to implement peacekeeping agreements, "then of course the international community has to consider other options", he said.
A US and British-led push for military action in Muslim Sudan less than four years after the invasion of Iraq could face significant opposition from Arab states and in the UN Security Council, where China - which buys most of Sudan's oil - holds veto powers.
Past UN resolutions on Darfur have included provisions barring Sudan from using its military aviation in the region, though they did not explicitly allow for imposition of a no-fly zone.
Oscar-winning US actor George Clooney met Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit in Cairo to press his campaign for an end to war and famine in Darfur.
"I'm here to keep the conversation alive. I will be talking to the minister about humanitarian issues. We're trying to stay out of the political arena," added Clooney, who was accompanied by fellow actor Don Cheadle.
Egypt has been a key mediator in the stand-off between the international community and the Sudanese regime.
- AFP
