Sudan: No talks says rebel group
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 The U.S. Congress declares that bloodletting in Darfur is genocide.
 Thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Sudan have now crossed into Chad.
 One of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today.
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KHARTOUM, Sudan -- A rebel leader from Sudan's troubled Darfur region says his group will not talk to the Sudanese government until it disarms Arab militias, casting doubts on U.N. hopes of fresh peace talks.
Sudan said it was improving security and aid in the western region, as European countries joined Washington in heaping pressure on Khartoum to end a conflict that threatens millions of lives and has been labeled genocide by the U.S. Congress.
Britain's top military commander said his country could muster 5,000 troops to intervene in Darfur while a senior EU official urged Sudan to disarm Arab militias accused of killing, raping and looting in black African villages.
In Melbourne Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia was likely to contribute a small number of troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
"There's a good chance that we will send some troops to Sudan," he told the Nine Network Sunday program.
Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), put the spotlight on the difficulties the international community faces in trying to end the conflict.
"JEM will not have any direct contact with the government and will not start any political negotiations... until the government meets preconditions which are the terms of the cease-fire signed ... on April 8," Ibrahim told Reuters from Eritrea.
The JEM says disarmament of the Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, is a key precondition. The rebels and Khartoum have accused each other of truce violations.
The JEM and the other main Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), launched a revolt against Khartoum last year, charging the government with arming the Janjaweed.
Peace talks hosted by the African Union were suspended last week when rebels walked out after Khartoum rejected some of their preconditions.
The United Nations estimates at least 30,000 people have been killed in the crisis and that some 1.5 million have been made homeless.
Sudan's foreign minister insisted this weekend that his country would prosecute Arab militias responsible for killings in the troubled Darfur region, but again denied that the attacks amounted to genocide.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail met Saturday with his Dutch counterpart, Ben Bot, a day after meeting with European Union officials in Brussels to discuss Darfur.
"We've arrested 100 of the Janjaweed leaders and will put them in court," Ismail said in the Netherlands, which now holds the rotating EU presidency.
International concern has been raised by television pictures showing refugee camps in neighboring Chad full of thin women and children living on meagre rations with very little shelter.
While a U.S.-drafted resolution seeking to threaten oil-producing Sudan with sanctions remains stalled in the U.N. Security Council by China and Russia, European countries have stepped up a drive to resolve the Darfur crisis.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose country is Sudan's largest cash donor, has not ruled out military intervention.
"If need be, we will be able to go to Sudan. I suspect we could put a brigade together very quickly indeed," Britain's Chief of General Staff, General Mike Jackson, told the BBC, signaling some 5,000 troops were available.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier is due to visit el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, on Monday.
 The janjaweed militia are blamed for sprees of looting, murder and rape. | |
Sudan, which has warned Britain and the United States not to interfere in its internal affairs, said all arms of government had been working to resolve the security and humanitarian situation in Darfur.
"On the security side, 5,000 police have been mobilized across the three states of Darfur and all of the police stations that were attacked by rebel groups have been reopened," the Information Ministry said in a statement.
"By last week, 90,000 internally displaced people out of the 212,000 displaced due to tribal fighting have returned to their villages of origin."
Khartoum's figure of 212,000 for the number of displaced people differs with the U.N.'s estimated 1.5 million.
Relief agencies returned on Saturday to two camps housing tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad after security fears and a dispute with local authorities stopped vital aid work for several days.
After travelling for hours over bumpy single track roads past camels, goats and donkeys, aid workers told leaders of the camps that they were ready to resume operations after assurances from Chadian officials that it was safe to do so.
"We came here today to say we are here for you and we are here to stay," Mathijs Le Rutte, a senior official from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, told a gathering of refugees.
|  Ismail: "We will put 100 militia leaders in court" |
So far neither the Bush administration nor the U.N. has said the conflict is genocide -- a step which would authorize other nations to intervene under international law.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said last month he was not ready to describe the situation in Darfur "as genocide or ethnic cleansing" but he did call it "a tragic humanitarian situation" and raised the possibility of international intervention.
Congress approved resolutions late Thursday declaring that atrocities unfolding in Darfur are genocide, and urged the Bush administration to do the same.
Passed unanimously in the House and Senate, the measures urged President George W. Bush to call the situation in Sudan "by its rightful name" and urge his administration work with the international community to stop it.
Human rights groups expressed hope the actions would lead to international action to stop the slaughter.
"There have clearly been massive atrocities committed against civilians, but genocide requires a particular intent that's not easy to prove," Leslie Lefkow, an Amsterdam-based researcher with Human Rights Watch, told the Associated Press.
The New York-based rights group has called the violence "ethnic cleansing" but not "genocide."
"Whatever you call it... this is just an appalling human rights situation that needs to be addressed," Lefkow said.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
