UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell meets UN Secretary General Kofi Annan here on Thursday as the United States prepares to put forward a new draft Security Council resolution on the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region.
The two men visited Darfur, where Arab militias are carrying out a bloody campaign that has led to what the United Nations calls the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world, in the past few weeks.
"It's a chance to go up and talk face-to-face with the secretary general about the many things that are going on right now, particularly about Sudan," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
More than 10,000 people have died in Darfur and more than a million been driven from their homes since a revolt against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum broke out among indigenous ethnic minorities in February 2003.
In retaliation, the pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias have gone on the rampage, and Annan said Wednesday that attacks were continuing despite the Sudanese government's pledge to disarm them.
"It is clear that serious crimes have been committed and there has been gross and systematic abuse of human rights," he said.
The United States presented an initial version of a draft resolution late last month that would have slapped sanctions on the Janjaweed but not on the government in Khartoum, which is accused of actively backing them.
Human Rights Watch said Monday it had documents showing that Sudan was recruiting, arming and supporting the Janjaweed, a charge it has repeatedly denied.
"It is nothing new of this organisation to take up this role that raises suspicion," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said.
On his visit earlier this month, Annan got Khartoum to agree to a series of steps, including immediately disarming the militias, and improving access for aid workers in the troubled region.
"Access has opened up but there has been little progress on human rights," Annan said Wednesday. "There are continuing reports of attacks by the Janjaweed."
A first version of the US resolution, which would have slapped sanctions on the Janjaweed but did not call for similar steps against the government, did not garner much support from council members.
But British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said he thought the 15-nation council could now "quite speedily" agree on an amended resolution that would send a "very firm" message to Khartoum.
"Our intention is to strengthen the resolution, to continue to push the government to do what it hasn't done," a senior US state department official said.
Powell was to meet Annan around 2000 GMT.