UN adopts resolution on Sudan

The protagonists in Sudan's main civil war, which ignited in 1983, also pledged in an annex to the resolution to conclude two years of talks with a comprehensive peace accord by the end of the year.

Aimed at fostering "lasting peace and stability and to build a prosperous and united Sudan," the UN resolution 1574 specifically urges the Khartoum government and southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to make good on that pledge.

It dangles the prospect of massive development aid if a deal is struck, and suggests its signing would help to bring peace to other areas of Sudan, notably the western region of Darfur, where a separate conflict has spawned what the UN terms the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

It demanded that government and rebel forces in Darfur, where war erupted in February 2003 "cease all violence and attacks, including abduction (and) refrain from forcible relocation of civilians."

But it removed a direct threat of sanctions against Khartoum if it failed to end the violence.

Human rights groups place most of the blame for massive human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in Darfur on government forces and their allied militia.

And the international aid agency Oxfam was first off the mark to damn the resolution, slamming it even before it was officially adopted as "weak" and "dithering"

"Instead of responding to the ongoing crisis" in Darfur "with concrete action, the Security Council could only agree to 'monitor compliance' with previous resolutions," Oxfam said in a statement.

"For the people of Darfur, 'monitoring compliance' has become UN speak for more death and suffering," the statement added.

While the resolution does indirectly recall that the threat of sanctions hangs over Khartoum if it fails to rein in militias blamed for widespread human rights abuses in Darfur, it stipulates that such sanctions would only be effected after yet another resolution.

Although Oxfam recognised that the point of the resolution was to push for a north-south peace deal and that this would have long term benefits in Darfur, the agency stressed that "people are dying there every day."