UK's Blair moots Darfur no-fly zone, US envoy to visit

LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Britain would agree to a no-fly zone over Sudan's Darfur region as part of a UN sanctioned ''Plan B'' to halt violence and a humanitarian crisis in the African state, Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said today.

Blair's spokesman quoted comments made by him during a visit to Washington last week, in which the British prime minister said the option of a no-fly zone to help the people of Darfur should be considered as part of possible sanctions against the Sudanese government if it did not agree to a UN peace plan.

''If, in the next weeks and next couple of months or so the Sudanese government are not prepared to agree to the UN plan, then we've got to move to sanctions and we've got to move to tougher action,'' Blair said, according to the transcript.

''I think we should certainly consider the option of a no-fly zone to help people in Darfur, because it's a very, very serious situation and it's now spilling into other countries next door.'' The United Nations Security Council in August approved deployment of as many as 22,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, where some 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million driven from their homes in a conflict that has raged since 2003.

But Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has resisted intense international pressure to let in UN troops, saying it would be akin to a Western recolonisation of his country.

Washington's special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, has set a January. 1 deadline for Khartoum to make progress on Darfur or have the United States and others resort to what he called ''Plan B.'' Natsios is scheduled to visit Britain next week following his latest round of diplomatic efforts in Khartoum and is expected to hold talks with International Development Secretary Hilary Benn.

Blair's spokesman said today the prime minister believed it was important not to take the pressure off Bashir.

''This issue is not going to be allowed to gently slide away,'' Blair's spokesman told reporters.

But he added: ''We shouldn't jump ahead because that takes the focus off where it should be, which is on the Sudanese government and the rebel groups to comply with the (United Nations chief) Kofi Annan proposals.'' REUTERS PDM RN2109