China opposes expanded sanctions against Sudan
BEIJING, May 29 (Reuters) China said today that it opposed expanded sanctions against Sudan after reports the United States will unveil tough new moves against Sudan and push for another UN resolution on the conflict in Darfur.
China's representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, who has been acting as an envoy on Darfur, said ''pressure and sanctions'' did not help resolve problems.
''Expanding sanctions can only make the problem more difficult to resolve,'' Liu told a news conference in Beijing.
Asked whether China would veto any new UN Security Council resolution targeting Sudan, he said: ''It's still too early to speak of.'' Beijing said earlier this month it would send 275 military engineers for a UN force to bolster African Union peacekeepers already in Darfur, where Liu visited this month.
But China, a major customer for Sudan's oil, has also blocked sending UN peacekeepers to Darfur without Khartoum's consent, bringing accusations from human rights groups that it is abetting widespread bloodshed, even genocide.
Fighting by government-linked militias and rebel groups in the Darfur region of western Sudan has killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes, the United Nations has estimated. Sudan says only about 9,000 have died.
President George W Bush will announce the sanctions in a speech on Tuesday, imposing unilateral action against 31 companies and four individuals, administration officials said.
At the United Nations, the United States and Britain are considering drafting a resolution that would impose an arms embargo on all of Sudan, not just Darfur, and increase the number of individuals targeted by sanctions.
REUTERS NC VV1625


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