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Two top United Nations officials warned on Friday the situation in Sudan's western Darfur region was spinning out of control toward full-scale war.
UN special envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson told the Security Council the region's disparate rebel groups have made only limited progress in preparing for new peace negotiations and were not yet ready for serious peace talks.
He said latest reports from West Darfur state that Sudanese government aircraft, army and militia had attacked three towns on Friday showed how "disturbing" the situation had become.
"It looks like a rather large-scale operation," Eliasson told reporters about the attacks. "The situation is running out of control. We cannot get the political talks going if we cannot have an atmosphere ... in which talks can take place."
Jean-Marie Guehenno, UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, also sounded pessimistic, saying a planned 26,000-strong peace force faced continued obstacles in deploying and might have to operate as hostilities continued.
Guehenno said in western Darfur the conflict was beginning to look like full-scale war.
"For a peacekeeping force to operate in the midst of a war is a very dangerous position to be in," Guehenno said. Under such conditions "a peacekeeping force cannot by and of itself stop that violence."
Guehenno warned that the crisis in neighboring Chad and atmosphere of mistrust between Sudan and its neighbor risked widening the Darfur conflict beyond Sudan's borders.
The United Nations has been pushing the rebels and Sudan's government to hold new negotiations after a first round in Libya last October made little headway.
Some rebel groups have signed a deal with the Sudanese government but the insurgents have split into many factions and others are still fighting for a renewed peace process.
"While the people of Darfur cannot wait for ever, we will have to accept that the steps toward an eventual peace agreement will be incremental and will take longer than we had initially hoped," Eliasson said.
Trouble with chad
Eliasson said it was time to appoint a full-time joint African Union-U.N. chief mediator in Sudan. The Dutch government said this week it would be willing to host a new round of peace talks.
International experts estimate that around 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been driven from their homes in the conflict, which has prompted the world's largest humanitarian operation. Khartoum says the number of dead is much lower and accuses the West of exaggerating.
The United Nations and the African Union are due to deploy a joint peacekeeping force in Darfur but it has been delayed by a shortage of helicopters and disagreements with Khartoum over its composition. Only 9,000 troops are currently in place.
Thailand and Nepal have offered units to the UN-AU force but Khartoum has yet to accept them. Guehenno said he urgently needed a quick decision from Khartoum on their inclusion.
Guehenno said rising Chad-Sudan tensions were a serious concern and showed the conflict could become regional.
"Continuing accusations by both governments ... increase the climate of mistrust, fuel tensions between the two countries, and once again demonstrate the potential for a conflict of international dimensions in the area," he said.
Chad's government accuses Khartoum of supporting rebels who tried to oust President Idriss Deby last weekend, while Sudan's government says Chad's leaders are backing rebels in Darfur. The two governments reject each others' accusations.
