US envoy arrives in Libya for Darfur talks

TRIPOLI, Mar 8 (Reuters) US special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios arrived in Tripoli today for talks with Libyan leaders on the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, a US embassy official said.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has hosted a string of mini-summits and other gatherings in the past two years on the war in Darfur, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes since 2003.

The embassy official added Natsios was scheduled to stay until Saturday but there was no immediate word on the timing of the talks or which Libyan officials they would involve.

Gaddafi, who advocates African solutions in resolving African conflicts and avoiding reliance on Western diplomacy, regards neighbouring Sudan and Chad as his diplomatic backyard.

The bloodshed in Darfur, an area the size of France, began after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms accusing Khartoum of neglecting the arid region. The violence has now spilled over to Chad and Central African Republic.

In a damning State Department report released on Tuesday, Washington said genocide was ongoing in Darfur. Khartoum denies genocide and says the Western media exaggerates the four-year-old conflict.

Natsios was in Khartoum yesterday, where he said Sudan's government was paralysing the Darfur humanitarian operation with bureaucratic hurdles which could cause massive loss of life.

After meeting President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Natsios said there was still no agreement on allowing non-African peacekeeping troops to assist a cash-strapped and inexperienced African Union mission in Darfur.

Bashir rejects any UN troops in Darfur calling it a western attempt to colonise Africa's largest country, and also opposes even a compromise hybrid UN-AU force.

Natsios said the most immediate worry was the restrictions and threats facing aid workers in Darfur, where the world's largest humanitarian effort is under way.

REUTERS AKJ KP1836