THE International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor named a Sudanese minister and a militia commander on Tuesday as the first suspects he wants tried for war crimes in Darfur and suggested more may follow.

The United Nations and African Union envoys for Sudan agreed to work “hand-in-hand” to try to bring all the warring parties to the peace table and convince them there is no military solution to the Darfur conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today told the UN Human Rights Council to immediately address the escalating atrocities in Darfur by sending an independent team of investigators to the volatile Sudanese region.

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan urged the global body’s human rights watchdog today to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impartially and said it was time to focus attention on ”graver” crises such as Darfur.

AID workers are getting less and less access to those in need in the war-torn Darfur region even as 50,000 people fled their homes amid a government offensive this month, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Sudan has warned.

Aid workers are getting less and less access to those in need in the war-torn Darfur region even as 50,000 people fled their homes amid a government offensive this month, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Sudan says.

The Sudanese president asked Arab leaders gathered at a summit yesterday to provide the necessary money to keep African Union peacekeepers operating in the troubled Western Darfur region.

The annual Arab League summit was sharply divided even before it began in Sudan today, with late-night wrangling over the wording of the final declaration and the absence of a number of key leaders at a meeting meant to tackle the region’s tricky problems.

US legislators have vowed to push for UN sanctions against the Sudanese government after meeting with Darfur rebels in western Sudan and visiting camps for Sudanese refugees in Chad over the weekend.

Travis frontman Fran Healy today described the lack of clean water in war-torn Sudan as “unbelievable”.

CHAOS is looming in Sudan’s western Darfur region as violence increases, order collapses, and the number of desperate people in need of humanitarian aid reaches nearly 2.3 million, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the United Nations Security Council.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appointed a five-member international commission to investigate whether acts of genocide took place during the 19-month conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

SUDAN’S government agreed in a breakthrough at peace talks yesterday to allow more African Union troops enter the Darfur region to confine rebel fighters to their bases, a possible precursor to disarmament.

The United Nations Security Council has given Sudan 30 days to stem the Darfur conflict or face the prospect of diplomatic and economic sanctions.

WASHINGTON is using the Darfur conflict to topple the Sudanese government, Khartoum’s envoy to the African Union (AU) said yesterday.