By Noel King

KHARTOUM, June 20 (Reuters) Sudan told visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki today that it was out of the question for U N troops to deploy in the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan to replace an African Union (AU) force there.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told a news conference with Mbeki that U N forces were unacceptable because they would come to Sudan with colonial and imperial ambitions.

The United States and the United Nations have been pressing for the U N force, arguing that the existing AU force of 7,000 does not have the resources to end three years of conflict in Darfur, where more than 2 million have fled their homes.

The Sudanese government has resisted all attempts at persuasion and Bashir stuck to his position today.

''We do not reject the United Nations, but in no way will we accept U N troops because ... these troops have an imperial and colonial agenda. Changing this mission to the United Nations will never happen, never ever happen,'' he said.

Mbeki said South Africa wanted to see the United Nations assist in a way agreed by the government and the African Union.

''But we did not come here to discuss that issue,'' he added.

Mbeki, on a one-day visit to Khartoum, had been expected to keep up the pressure on Khartoum to approve the U N mission.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli urged Sudan to support the U.N. peacekeeping force but declined to be drawn on the Sudanese leader's comments rejecting such a force.

Asked whether the United States and others should impose an U N intervention force in Sudan's Darfur region, Ereli replied: ''That is not our preferred option.'' DELAY TACTICS U S Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told reporters in Uganda today that the government was ''again involved in tactics of delay.

''Even before the AU came in there, they resisted African forces. Now they say they only want African forces,'' said Frazer, Washington's top diplomat on Africa.

''It is clear the U N is going to go in. It would be in the interest of the Sudanese government, I believe, to be seen to be proactive, rather than having been pushed into something that is inevitable,'' Frazer said.

Bashir told Sudanese members of parliament yesterday that he would not let U N troops deploy as long as he was in power.

A senior African official said that in private the Sudanese government was taking a softer line, indicating it could accept a U N force which does not derive its mandate from Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which authorises the use of force.

The United Nations cites Chapter 7 for aspects of nearly all peacekeeping mandates for protecting civilians or self-defence.

The African Union's top diplomat, Alpha Oumar Konare, visited Darfur today and said nothing could be done without the consent of the Sudanese government.

''This matter will be addressed in discussions to see how best the Abuja deal (on peace in Darfur) can be implemented,'' he said in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province.

Konare told provincial governor Youssef Kibir that it was important to explain the May 5 peace deal to the people, many of whom are sceptical or hostile to the agreement.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when Darfur rebels rooted in non-Arab farming communities took up arms to demand better representation in government. The government recruited tribal Arab militias in an attempt to defeat the rebellion.

REUTERS PDS BST0124