China says UN force in Darfur requires Sudan's nod

BEIJING, Nov 2 (Reuters) Sudan must first agree before any United Nations peacekeeping force enters its war-wracked Darfur region, China said today, as its President Hu Jintao met the president of the African state.

Beijing is hosting dozens of African leaders for a summit opening Friday and intended to show China as a benign force for development on the largely poor continent. But among them is Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accused by critics of abetting a vicious civil conflict in Darfur.

China has lucrative business interests in Sudan, which sells it large amounts of oil, and is a major arms supplier to the country.

Beijing has resisted calls to authorise UN peacekeepers in Darfur without the nod of the Sudanese government.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao stood by that position today.

''We also argue that the United Nations should and can play a positive and effective role in the Darfur issue,'' Liu said.

''What specific measures should be adopted must receive the approval of the Sudanese government, and the reasonable concerns of Sudan must be addressed in an appropriate manner.'' Bashir and Chinese President Hu Jintao met today and discussed Darfur, Liu said, without providing any details. Bashir also opened a new Sudanese embassy in Beijing, one of his country's largest diplomat posts.

Western leaders, some African presidents, and humanitarian groups are piling pressure on Bashir to accept a UN resolution to deploy more than 20,000 UN peacekeeping troops in Darfur, which has been rent by political and ethnic violence since 2003.

They say this is the only way to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the west Sudanese region, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced by fighting between government troops, rebels and militias.

The conflict has pitted mostly non-Arab rebels against the Arab-dominated government and Janjaweed militia. All sides have been accused of grave human rights violations.

China has backed peacekeeping efforts in Darfur by the African Union, a regional grouping. But Washington, London and many human rights groups say the 7,000-strong AU force is not enough to staunch the fighting there.

REUTERS SSC VV1723