Peacekeepers warn of military build up in Darfur

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rebel and Sudan government forces have been massing in Sudan's Darfur region, raising fears of new violence, peacekeepers said a day after the United States demanded concrete moves towards peace in the territory.

The joint U.N.-African Union UNAMID force said there were signs of military escalation in the north of the region, where two million people have fled more than six years of conflict.

"It is like when you look at the sky and see thunder clouds massing ... We have seen a build up in the number of troops, movements of troops, setting up of defensive positions," UNAMID communications chief Kemal Saiki told Reuters on Tuesday.

"There are signs that our military can read and they have concluded that there is a probability that armed confrontation could spring up."

Sudan's army was not immediately able to comment. The insurgent Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) loyal to Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur, which UNAMID said was also massing troops, denied the report.

On Monday Washington announced a new policy to end violence in Darfur and Sudan's semi-autonomous south before national elections next year.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said one of the main aims of the new package of incentives and penalties was to press Sudan to bring "an end to conflict, gross human rights abuses, war crimes, and genocide in Darfur".

The UNAMID warning will raise questions about the willingness of both Khartoum and Darfur's fractured rebels to stop the fighting which flared in the western territory in 2003.