LONDON, Aug 23 (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw left London Monday for Sudan, where he was to discuss the crisis in war-torn Darfur with President Omar al-Beshir and senior officials.
Straw is due Tuesday to visit a camp for displaced persons in northern Darfur, the vast region where a rebellion launched a year and a half ago triggered a brutal retaliation by Khartoum and its allied militia.
"I am keen to see for myself the situation on the ground in Darfur, and to make clear to the Sudanese government and people the extent of British, and broader international, concern," Straw said before his departure, according to a press release.
The foreign secretary said he would be "liaising closely" with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was Monday to begin hosting a new round of peace talks in Abuja between Darfur's rival sides.
Beshir's government has been harshly criticized abroad for failing so far to reign in and disarm the Janjaweed militia, notorious Arab gunmen who have carried out a scorched-earth campaign on ethnic black civilians in Darfur.
The UN Security Council has given Sudan until the end of the month to begin restoring order in Darfur or face potential international sanctions.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's office stressed Straw was delivering a "clear message" to Sudan that it must heed the UN Security Council resolution.
"There has to be a political solution to the crisis and the government of Sudan has to be part of that," a Blair spokeswoman said Monday.
Nigeria and Rwanda have made more than 2,000 soldiers available to transform a small African Union ceasefire monitoring team already in Darfur into a genuine peacekeeping force, but Sudan has not yet allowed them to deploy.
In Abuja Monday, Sudan's delegation leader said there was no need to deploy an African Union peacekeeping force.
Straw said he would report back on his visit to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, as the world body mulls what action to take if Sudan is found to ignore the calls to stem the humanitarian catastrophe.
The United Nations reports that more than one million people have been driven from their homes in 18 months of fighting and that more than 30,000 have been killed, many of them in Janjaweed raids against unarmed villagers.