CAIRO, July 27 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that it was too soon to talk of military intervention in the humanitarian crisis in the restive Darfur region of western Sudan.
"Some nations have gone further and started to talk about other actions of a military nature but I think that's premature," Powell told the travelling press en route to talks in Cairo.
"We should not underestimate what a difficult choice that would be in a sovereign country when there is no UN resolution for any such action and where the government, I believe, still have the ability to take action to bring this violence under control," he said.
Key US allies Britain and Australia have both expressed readiness to commit troops to an international intervention force for Darfur where up to 50,000 people have died and more than a million been driven from their homes in fighting between ethnic minority rebels, and the Sudanese government and their Arab militia allies.
Powell, who himself visited Khartoum late last month with a tough demand for action, said the Sudanese government should be given a little more time to honour its pledges to rein in the militias, whom the international community holds largely responsible for the crisis.
"The resolution that we are working in New York now (at the UN Security Council) recognizes that perhaps more time might be necessary and so it doesn't ask for sanctions to be imposed now," said Powell.
"It essentially says let's give Sudan 30 days before there is consideration of sanctions."
But he warned that the threat of international action remained.
"We must consider sanctions as a way of bringing the pressure on the Sudanese government," he said.
"In my conversations over the weekend with a large number of Security Council members I sense that the council is moving closer to this resolution."