Cairo to call summit to contain Darfur crisis

Egypt will call a five-way summit of African leaders to give the African Union the chance to deal with a crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, Egypt's presidential spokesman said yesterday.

Suleiman Awad did not give a date for the meeting, which he said would be the follow-up to a gathering of Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt, Chad and Libya, held in Tripoli in October.

The summit would aim "to give the African Union, strengthened by the efforts of the international community, the chance to contain the crisis in a pure African framework," Awad said. It will also aim to avoid the "internationalisation" of the crisis, he added.

The UN Security Council on Thursday passed a resolution sending Darfur war crime suspects to the International Criminal Court. Sudan has said it will refuse to send suspects to face justice abroad.

The African Union has a force of around 2,000 in Darfur monitoring a ceasefire between Darfur rebels and government forces. The truce is frequently broken.

Rebels who took up arms against Khartoum in early 2003 say militia used by the government to crush their uprising have committed human rights abuses against civilians in Darfur.

The militia, known as Janjaweed, are accused of carrying out a campaign of rape, looting and village burning in Darfur, where violence has uprooted around 2 million people.

African leaders will visit Egypt on April 18 and 19 for a meeting of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. (NEPAD).

Meanwhile, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has condemned a UN vote to refer Sudanese accused of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a blatant violation of Sudan's independence.

"The Sudanese laws are the only ones that apply on Sudanese citizens in Sudan. Sudanese courts are the only ones entitled to try people inside Sudan," said Gaddafi, in a statement reported by state news agency Jana late on Saturday. Gaddafi enjoys strong links with Khartoum government leaders and their rebel foes in the Darfur region.

A UN-appointed commission said heinous crimes against humanity had taken place in Darfur where tens of thousands have been killed in fighting.

Gaddafi said the Security Council had no right to "mingle in the internal affairs of countries".

"That decision [of the UN Security Council] aims at fanning the conflict in Darfur and will not at all help resolve the crisis in that region," he said.

"It is an affront to all Sudanese and a blatant violation of Sudan's independence," Gaddafi added.