UN chief urges action over Darfur (from ATSNN), page 1

It is very urgent that immediate action over a US draft resolution on Sudan's Darfur region is to be done. Citizens in toubled area that would be taken care of are being attack as we speak. The US put forward a resolution earlier this month to step up the pressure on the Sudanese authorities - Sudan says it is "imbalanced and unfair".

news.bbc.co.uk
The US draft resolution calls for an enlarged African Union (AU) monitoring force in Darfur and asks Mr Annan to set up an international commission to investigate human rights violations in the region.

"It is urgent to act now. Civilians are still being attacked and fleeing their villages as we speak," Mr Annan told reporters.

He added that thousands of people were still dying of preventable diseases, but said there had been positive developments in the delivery of humanitarian aid.

African Union negotiators are continuing to try to achieve some agreement with Darfur rebel groups.

On Wednesday, peace talks between the government and rebels in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, were postponed for at least three weeks.

One of the rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, has refused to sign a humanitarian accord and declared that the talks had collapsed.

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We need to be over there saving the lives of these people. We can be helping out, instead of brushing over fine details. If we can help them out we should be doing just that.

The talks had been deadlocked on the issue of whether rebels should disarm at the same time as the pro-government Janjaweed militia.

The rebels feel that the Janjaweed militia should disarm first, obviously.

Obviously, the government says that the rebels sholuld disarm first, seeing as they started it.

But the rebels accuse the Janjaweed of widespread atrocities, including genocide, and say the Arab militias must lay down their weapons first.