Britain Gives Sudan Days to Meet Demands or Face New Sanctions

Sudan has "days not weeks" to curb military operations in Darfur and accept an international peacekeeping force or face tougher sanctions, the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, has warned.

On a day of protests around the world to mark the fourth anniversary of the conflict and to call for UN intervention, Mrs Beckett sought to inject a sense of urgency into the diplomatic effort that has so far failed to contain the crisis.

At least 200,000 people have been killed in the region and 2.5 million people displaced since 2003.

A declaration last month by Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, saying he would no longer stand by an earlier agreement to accept a 22,000-strong UN force, triggered the move by the US and the UK to impose tougher sanctions on Khartoum. President Bashir has since relented, allowing 3,000 UN peacekeepers with six attack helicopters to reinforce 7,000 African Union troops already acting as observers.

But Mrs Beckett made clear the Sudanese leader would have to do more to fend off new punitive measures. She said the work on sanctions would "give a little breathing space to see if there would be progress", but thought there was "a general feeling this must not be allowed to be a recipe for more deliberate delay". She added: "If we don't see progress in days rather than weeks, we will have to move ahead with a fresh sanctions resolution."

Scepticism has been reinforced by Sudan's continuing air raids, including an attack on a rebel meeting yesterday in north Darfur. Tony Blair had pushed for a no-fly zone over Darfur, enforced if necessary by air strikes on Sudanese airfields, but met opposition in the security council. Now Britain is pushing for more observers to monitor Sudanese flights. UK officials believe that further evidence of violations will either force Sudan to end its bombing, or add weight to the prime minister's call for a no-fly zone.

To hold off further sanctions, British officials say, Khartoum would have to agree to a UN-AU hybrid force, and take steps to allow in the UN deployment.

But even with Khartoum's cooperation the "heavy support package" would not be in place until the year-end, and the hybrid force not deployed until next year.