US, Europe threaten sanctions on Sudan

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told reporters in Khartoum his government was ready to cooperate with the African Union and the international community, but gave no details.

"The Sudanese people and their government are capable of reaching a solution to the problem in Darfur through constructive dialogue," Bashir said in his latest comments on what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Germany said Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Secretary of State Colin Powell agreed in telephone talks that "sanctions will be unavoidable if the (Khartoum) government does not meet its self-set commitments in Darfur."

Many countries have demanded Khartoum disarm Arab militias accused of mounting a scorched earth policy against black Africans in the arid western region that the US Congress has branded genocide. The UN says 30,000 people have been killed.

Germany and other European nations that opposed the US-led war on Iraq have found common cause with Washington over Darfur as television images show camps of destitute refugees -- among the 1.5 million the UN says have been displaced by fighting.

A US-drafted resolution seeking to threaten oil-producing Sudan with sanctions remains stalled in the United Nations Security Council by China and Russia -- two of the five veto-wielding permanent members.