Rebels call for int'l troops in Darfur

"We are asking the United States, the United Nations secretary general, the European Union and the African Union for the urgent deployment of troops in the coming days to ensure the delivery of food aid to millions of refugees," rebel spokesman Abdel Wahed Mohammed Nur told AFP.

Contacted by telephone, the spokesman of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) added that the intervention would "avert a humanitarian disaster of great proportions".

But Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail, speaking to BBC television on Sunday, questioned the need for foreign troops in the vast region, saying his government was doing all it could to disarm Arab militias.

"Why should we have to rush and to talk about military intervention as long as the situation is getting better?" Ismail asked. "My government is doing what can be done in order to disarm the militia."

In Khartoum, the ruling National Congress (NC) party took opposition to foreign intervention a step further, with a threat to use force to counter it, a press report said Sunday.

"Anybody who contemplates imposing his opinion by force will be confronted by force," NC secretary general Ibrahim Ahmed Omar said, quoted by the official Al-Anbaa daily.

"Any power that intervenes in Darfur will be a loser," he warned.