Top US diplomat snubbed over Darfur

KHARTOUM - Sudan has ignored American pressure to accept United Nations troops in Darfur, snubbing Washington's top diplomat on Africa and boycotting a critical UN Security Council debate on quelling violence in Sudan's west.

United States Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, who is in Khartoum to deliver a strong message to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir that he must accept UN troops, has been forced to extend her stay to try to get an audience with Bashir.

Frazer was greeted on arrival by an angry crowd telling her to go home. "Just protocol", said a foreign ministry official about her meetings with Sudanese officials.

"She is still hopeful and we are still hopeful that she will meet President Bashir," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The UN began a closed-door Security Council meeting in New York yesterday to discuss a US and British-sponsored draft resolution to deploy around 20,000 troops and police to Darfur.

But US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said Sudan had decided to boycott the meeting.

Bashir calls the resolution an attempt at Western colonialism.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland warned the Security Council that Darfur was on the brink of a fresh humanitarian disaster threatening "massive loss of life."

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million forced to find shelter in miserable camps during 3 1/2 years of fighting in Darfur.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms accusing the central government of marginalising the remote west.

Around 7000 African Union troops are struggling to monitor a shaky truce in Darfur, but short of cash and capabilities they have been unable to stem the violence.

- REUTERS