The UN Security Council voted today for a US-drafted resolution that threatens to impose sanctions on Sudan in 30 days if it does not disarm and prosecute marauding militia in Darfur.
The 13-0 vote, with abstentions from China and Pakistan, came after the United States deleted the word "sanctions" and substituted a reference to a section of the UN Charter permitting punitive measures to gain more support.
The Article 41 provision allows the "interruption" of economic, transport, communications or diplomatic measures, which amounts to sanctions.
The measure, co-sponsored by Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Chile and Romania, demands that Khartoum disarm and prosecute within 30 days militia known as Janjaweed or the Security Council will consider punitive measures.
But China's deputy UN ambassador, Zhang Yishan, said this was still too harsh and was "not helpful in resolving the situation in Darfur and may further complicate the situation."
At least 30,000 civilians have been killed and thousands have been raped in Sudan's western region of Darfur. Some 1 million villagers have been driven into barren camps and 2 million need food and medicine in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The resolution places an immediate weapons embargo on all armed groups in Darfur, where government forces and Arab Janjaweed militia have been battling a rebellion from some African tribes.
But Sudan security forces, accused of protecting the Janjaweed, are excluded from the arms ban.
"The responsibility for this disaster lies squarely on the government of Sudan," said US Ambassador Mr John Danforth, who ushered through the resolution. "It is time to start the clock ticking on the government of Sudan."
"This resolution guarantees that Darfur will be before the Security Council and before the world next month and the month after that and for as long as it takes to ensure that the people of Darfur will live in peace," Mr Danforth said.
The United Nations has been planning a peacekeeping force after a final peace pact in southern Sudan, where a decades-old civil war is ending. The resolution says the planning should also include Darfur, although troops are not expected soon.