Sudan says to impose travel ban on US officials

KHARTOUM - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, under international pressure over wartorn Darfur, has said his government would impose a travel ban on US officials that would confine them to the capital Khartoum.

Bashir, in his first news conference since returning from a trip to New York, said the ban was in response to similar restrictions placed on Sudanese officials in the United States.

"The (US) decision was that any Sudanese official has only 25km (as a radius) from the White House in Washington," Bashir told journalists.

"Any American official who comes to Sudan, we will stamp his passport for only 25km from the presidential palace," he added.

"And even if they apologise and lift theirs, we will not lift ours."

Bashir's announcement was met with spontaneous cheers of "God is Greatest" by Sudanese journalists at the news conference.

Sudan is under heavy international pressure to allow 20,000 UN troops into the western region of Darfur to replace 7000 poorly funded African Union troops tasked with monitoring a shaky ceasefire.

An estimated 200,000 people have died in Darfur since violence flared in 2003, and 2.5 million have been displaced in the fighting between government forces, rebels and militias.

The African Union Peace and Security Council, meeting on the sidelines of a session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, on Wednesday extended the mandate for African forces to the end of the year. It had been due to expire on September 30.

A UN force is seen as better able to aggressively enforce a tattered 2004 ceasefire and a peace deal signed in May by the government and one rebel faction.

Western leaders, some African presidents and international humanitarian groups say a UN force is the only way to stem the violence in Darfur.

- REUTERS