UK's Blair says Sudan could face tough measures

LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair today told Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to implement a UN-brokered agreement aimed at ending the Darfur crisis or face a response from the international community.

''The prime minister stressed to president Bashir that his government should implement what was agreed at the Addis Ababa meeting as quickly as possible,'' a spokesman said after Blair spoke to Bashir by telephone.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced after an international meeting in the Ethiopian capital last week that Sudan had agreed in principle to a joint UN-African Union force in Darfur, where three years of conflict have killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

But Khartoum has objected both to the size of a peacekeeping force and any UN sharing of command with African troops.

Before the phone call, Blair told parliament that there was international diplomatic support for ''tougher measures'' if Khartoum fails to implement the agreement. But he did not specify what such measures might be.

''We have the outlines of an agreement. The point is to get it implemented,'' Blair told parliament. ''We will be working very, very closely with our allies and particularly the United States to make sure that is done.'' ''I think it is very clear from the work that we've done and from the statements from the United States of America that if the government of Sudan do not seize this opportunity, we will have to look at tougher measures to take against them,'' he said.

Washington's special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, said this week the United States and others could resort to an unspecified ''plan B'' if Khartoum did not make progress on Darfur by January 1.

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