Japanese PM sets 1st visit to U.S.

Source: CNN.

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan's prime minister will make his first trip to the U.S. as premier this month for summit talks on North Korea and Iraq, against a backdrop of renewed controversy over Japan's use of military brothels during World War II.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will travel the United States April 26-27 and hold meetings with U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David before traveling to the Middle East, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki announced Wednesday.

The visit comes at a sensitive time, with U.S. lawmakers considering a nonbinding resolution urging Japan to apologize formally for forcing thousands of women into the brothels.

Abe has come under fire at home and abroad for suggesting in early March that there is no proof that the Imperial government or military coerced women into the brothels during the war, apparently backtracking a 1993 apology.

In a 20-minute phone call with Bush late Tuesday to prepare for the trip, Abe said he stands by the government's landmark 1993 apology. Abe said he broached the subject to clarify any misunderstandings.

"Since my remarks on the so-called comfort women issue have not been accurately reported, I expressed my true intention to President Bush just to clarify," Abe said.

Bush told Abe that he appreciated his candor and noted that Japan today is not the Japan of World War II, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Washington on Tuesday.

The upcoming meeting will not be Abe's first with Bush. The two leaders met on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim summit in Vietnam last year, after Abe took office in September.

Iraq, North Korea on agenda

The U.S. summit will touch on the ongoing war in Iraq, for which Japan has provided noncombat military support, as well as the six-nation talks on reining in North Korea's nuclear program, Shiozaki said.

"We hope to confirm that the Japan-U.S. alliance is a stabilizing factor for the region, and we plan to discuss ways to strengthen the alliance for the world and for Asia," Shiozaki said.

Japanese prime ministers usually visit the U.S., Japan's biggest ally, soon after taking office, but Abe has stressed his all-around foreign policy by visiting Europe and Asian neighbors first.

Abe told reporters Wednesday that the alliance with the U.S. is "the basis for our diplomacy and security" and added that he hopes to strengthen ties with Washington. About 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan under a mutual security pact as a legacy of World War II.

After the U.S. visit, Abe will head to the Middle East for meetings with leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt, he said. Those discussions will include the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Iraq war and Iran's nuclear ambitions, Shiozaki said.

"The Middle Eastern region, especially the countries in the Gulf area, are extremely important for Japan's energy security," he said. "We plan to discuss ways to achieve stability in the Middle East."

Last week, Japan's parliament approved a two-year extension of its airlift mission in support of Iraqi reconstruction. Tokyo had earlier backed the U.S.-led invasion and provided troops for a non-combat, humanitarian mission in the southern city of Samawah beginning in 2004.

Japan withdrew its ground troops in July 2006, and has since expanded its Kuwait-based air operations.

Abe's visit to the United States follows a string of other overseas calls and marks a break with tradition for new Japanese leaders who have tended to prioritize U.S. summits.

Abe made his first overseas trip as prime minister to Beijing and Seoul in early October. He visited Vietnam for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November. Abe also met with Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the Philippines last month. Abe continued his travels to Europe.

Chad: At least 65 killed in Sudan militia raid

Source: CNN.

N'DJAMENA, Chad (Reuters) -- At least 65 people were killed in a cross-border raid by Sudanese Janjaweed militia who torched two villages in eastern Chad, driving up to 8,000 civilians from their homes, Chadian authorities said Tuesday.

Sudan denied any role in the weekend attacks.

Chad's government said its forces killed 25 of the raiders, some mounted on camels and horses, others in vehicles, who destroyed the villages of Tiero and Marena on Saturday in the Wadi-Fira region of the eastern border with Sudan.

"Chadian military authorities reported at least 65 dead just in the village of Tiero," Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, in a briefing on the attacks.

Early reports indicated at least 70 wounded, half of them seriously. The death toll was expected to rise as casualty figures from the second village attacked became available.

Chadian Communication Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said the raiders, whom he identified as Sudanese Janjaweed militia, burned down the two villages, forcing their inhabitants to flee.

"Between 6,000 and 8,000 people are out in the open, without shelter and deprived of everything," he said, adding that government forces had pushed back the attackers.

The raids appeared to be the latest spillover of violence from Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 in a war between rebels and Sudanese government forces and their militia allies.

Chad President Idriss Deby, who also faces an insurgency in the east, frequently accuses Sudan of sending the Janjaweed -- feared mounted raiders whose name in Arabic means "devils on horseback" -- across the border to kill and plunder.

But Khartoum denied any responsibility for the latest raid.

"I have not heard anything about this incident. The Sudanese government played no role in this whatsoever," Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig told Reuters in Khartoum, Sudan.

The UNHCR's Redmond said there were reports of "corpses along roadsides" after the raids. He added testimony so far from victims indicated the assault was led by Janjaweed militia.

"Survivors interviewed by UNHCR said their villages were surrounded by men on horseback and camelback, as well as many motor vehicles, some of which were equipped with heavy weaponry. The assailants began to fire at random in the villages and then began pursuing the fleeing population," he said.

At least 2,000 people, mostly women and children, who fled the attacks reached the Goz Amir refugee camp near Koukou, some 28 miles (45 kilometers) west of the two villages, according to UNHCR.

"They say many people are still hiding in the bush, fearful their assailants might still be in the area," Redmond said.

The Janjaweed attackers fled toward the Sudanese border.

Goz Amir camp is already home to more than 19,000 Sudanese refugees from neighboring Darfur.

Sudan has refused to allow the deployment of a strong U.N. force in Darfur to bolster an over-stretched African Union peacekeeping contingent already there.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended in January sending up to 11,000 peacekeeping soldiers and police to Chad and Central African Republic to secure their porous borders with Darfur and protect civilians and refugees.

But Chad has said it only wants a civil protection force of police and gendarmes in the east.

Five African Union peacekeepers killed in Darfur

Source: CNN.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Unidentified gunmen killed five African Union peacekeepers in the Darfur region of western Sudan, the deadliest single attack against the force since late 2004, an AU spokesman said Monday.

The five were guarding a water point near the Sudanese border with Chad when they came under fire Sunday, Noureddine Mezni said. Four soldiers were killed in the shooting, and the fifth died of his wounds Monday morning.

Three gunmen also were killed, he said.

"We strongly condemn this cowardly attack against the very people who are working hard to achieve peace in Darfur," Mezni told Reuters. "It was totally unprovoked."

The new bloodshed came after the new U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said during a visit to the region last month that aid efforts in Darfur -- the largest in the world -- could collapse if the situation keeps deteriorating.

Asked if the assailants' bodies were identified, Mezni said: "An investigation is under way, and there will be a statement with more details."

The killings bring to 15 the number of African Union personnel killed in Darfur since the troops were deployed in late 2004. A senior Nigerian officer working with the mission has been missing since he was kidnapped in December.

The African Union operates an overstretched 7,000-strong force in Darfur. Sudan has rejected the deployment of a larger U.N. force in the region, where violence has persisted despite a 2006 peace agreement between the government and one rebel faction.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Monday reiterated his position that the AU had the main security responsibility for Darfur but said a "dialogue" was under way on other issues.

Sudanese officials recently said they were willing to review U.N. proposals for easing the violence in Darfur, where AU forces have failed to tackle the bloodshed.

Al-Bashir stressed, however, that the key to ending the conflict in Darfur rests with the Sudanese.

"The solution to the Darfur issue must be a national responsibility, with the sons and daughters of Sudan," al-Bashir told parliament.

The U.N. Mission in Sudan condemned the attack, stressing in a statement "the urgent need to identify those responsible for the attacks ... and to hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

That may not be easy. U.N. officials and aid workers say all types of armed groups are exploiting Darfur's chaos, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell them apart.

Experts estimate that around 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled their homes since the conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against Khartoum, charging it with neglect. The government says 9,000 people have died.

Darfuris say government-backed Janjaweed militias have stormed through their villages, killing, raping and burning down their huts. The government says it has no ties to the Janjaweed, which it calls outlaws.

The attack on AU forces came a day after a helicopter carrying the African Union deputy force commander came under fire on its way from western Darfur to the force's headquarters in El Fasher, the region's biggest town.

Japan deploys missile near Tokyo

Source: CNN.

IRUMA, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan trucked its first ballistic missile interceptors to an air force base north of Tokyo on Friday in an effort to beef up its defenses against its unpredictable neighbor North Korea.

The deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers, capable of shooting down incoming missiles in the final stage of flight as they near their target, was sparked by Pyongyang's firing of a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan.

But Tokyo rushed the equipment into service a year ahead of schedule after North Korea unnerved the region last year by firing more missiles and testing a nuclear device.

"We consider it very meaningful to deploy the air defense missiles close to metropolitan Tokyo, which is the center of business and political activities," Kazumasa Echizen, the Iruma air base public-information chief, said in a statement. "We will continue our efforts to be ready for any possible emergencies."

About 50 demonstrators shouted and waved banners as a line of green trucks carried the equipment through the gates of the base, about 40 km (25 miles) from central Tokyo, before dawn on Friday.

"Bringing PAC-3s to places like Iruma makes them the focus of interception strategy and therefore at risk of becoming the target of attack by other countries," an activist group said in a statement condemning the deployment as a "military performance".

Closer to Tokyo

The relatively short range of PAC-3 interceptors -- about 20 km (12 miles) -- means they are likely to be deployed closer to the center of the capital to protect financial and government hubs. More interceptors are set to be deployed at bases around the country over the next few years.

The United States has already deployed its own PAC-3s at a base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, and has deployed ship-based Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) missile interceptors at Yokosuka, west of Tokyo.

The new interceptors are the first to be controlled by the Japanese government, which has been pushed into a tighter defense relationship with the United States as regional tensions rise.

Tokyo's close involvement in U.S. defense strategy in Asia, while not as controversial as Washington's planned shield in eastern Europe, stretches the boundaries of Japan's pacifist constitution. Russia reacted angrily to U.S. plans to place parts of such a shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Japan limits military activities strictly to self-defense, meaning it is unable to shoot down a missile which is not headed for its own territory. The restriction annoys some officials in the United States.

Tokyo plans to equip one of its own warships with SM-3 interceptors, intended to shoot down ballistic missiles in the mid-phase of flight while outside the earth's atmosphere, by the end of this year.

It will attempt to bring down a dummy missile using its own ship-based SM-3 interceptors in a test later this year, Lieutenant-General Henry Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, told the House Armed Services Committee this week, in the first such test by a U.S. ally.

Japan's spending on missile defense is set to increase by 30.5 percent to 182.6 billion yen ($1.55 billion) in the financial year that starts next month.

Friday's deployment came after a setback for Japanese intelligence this week, when one of the set of four satellites it launched to monitor North Korea broke down. It is not scheduled to be replaced until 2011.

Bank threatens to sue over NK funds

Source: CNN.

HONG KONG, China (AP) -- A majority foreign-owned North Korean bank has threatened legal action if money it holds in a Macau bank is transferred to China, a report said Tuesday.

Such a move threatens to derail a U.S.-North Korean deal that was crucial in getting the North to agree to start shutting down its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official has met with North Korean officials to try to resolve the financial dispute, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, met with officials from the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday, his spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said.

North Korea refused last week to return to nuclear disarmament talks until about $25 million of its funds frozen at a blacklisted Macau bank is transferred to the Bank of China.

The fund transfer was supposed to occur last week but was delayed for reasons that haven't been fully explained.

On Tuesday, the International Herald Tribune reported that a British businessman, Colin McAskill, has threatened legal action by the Pyongyang-based Daedong Credit Bank if $7 million of the funds is moved to the Bank of China account. McAskill has agreed to buy Daedong Credit Bank, which is majority foreign-owned, and is representing it in discussions with Macau authorities, the report said.

McAskill told The Associated Press that the report was accurate but declined to comment further on the record.

The $25 million was frozen in September 2005 after the U.S. accused the Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, of helping North Korea launder money and handle counterfeit U.S. currency.

The move enraged the North Koreans, who boycotted the nuclear talks for more than a year. They recently returned to the negotiations after the U.S. agreed to settle the banking issue. The funds were to be transferred to a North Korean-owned account at the Bank of China to be used for humanitarian purposes in North Korea.

But McAskill said the $7 million that belongs to Daedong Credit Bank was earned from legitimate joint ventures between foreign companies and North Korea, the report said.

"Daedong's money must be separated from the political arena," it quoted him as saying. "We wish to leave the money in Macau until we can make arrangements to transfer it to one of our normal correspondent banks."

The U.S. has decided to cut off Banco Delta Asia from the American financial system. Once this becomes effective in mid April, it will be difficult for the Macau lender to move money out of U.S. currency accounts because most U.S. dollar transfers are processed in the U.S., the report said.

McAskill said Daedong Credit Bank wanted to beat the deadline by getting permission to move its money to a temporary account in another Macau bank, the report said.

China, Russia urge Iran to play ball

Source: CNN.

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- The presidents of Russia and China have called on Iran to fulfill the U.N. Security Council's resolutions over its disputed nuclear program.

Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao also said Monday in a joint statement that their countries -- permanent, veto-wielding Security Council members -- were ready to "search for a comprehensive, long-term and mutually acceptable solution to the Iranian nuclear problem."

"Russia and China are calling on Iran to take the necessary constructive steps to fulfill the U.N. Security Council resolutions and (International Atomic Energy Agency) board decisions and believe that Iran ... has the right to pursue peaceful use of nuclear energy while observing its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," the statement said.

They emphasized again that the increasingly tense dispute should be resolved "exclusively through peaceful means."

Russia and China joined other members of the Security Council on Saturday in voting to impose new sanctions on Iran. The sanctions included the banning of Iranian arms exports and the freezing of assets of 28 people and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

Iran rejected the sanctions and later announced a partial suspension of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"We intend to extend our partnerships in all areas," Putin said after the statement was signed. "The development of trade and economic relations remains the priority."

"The strengthening of the strategic cooperation between Russia and China ... is very important from the point of view of a multi-polar world and the democratization of the international relations," Hu said.

The visit by Hu to Moscow comes amid efforts by both countries to bolster what they say is a "strategic partnership" forged since the 1991 Soviet collapse. Before Hu's arrival, Russian and Chinese officials said that North Korea's nuclear efforts -- as well as Iran's -- would be on the agenda.

Like Russia, China has been reluctant to join the United States and other Western nations in an aggressive push for punitive sanctions against Iran, which says its nuclear programs are of a peaceful nature.

Washington and some of its allies fear the Iranian efforts are a cover for producing atomic weapons.

The new sanctions could be lifted if Tehran helped assuage global concerns, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said earlier, according to ITAR-Tass.

Earlier on Monday, the Russian state-run company building Iran's first atomic power plant said that Tehran had made its first payment toward the delayed construction of the Bushehr plant since a dispute over financing halted the project.

Moscow and Tehran have been at loggerheads over financing of the plant, and Russia earlier this month said that nuclear fuel would not be supplied this month, as had been planned. The delays prompted Russia to indefinitely postpone the reactor's launch, set for September.

Iran, meanwhile, angrily denied falling behind in payments and accused Russia of caving in to U.S. pressure to take a tougher line on Tehran for defying international demands to halt parts of its nuclear program.

Russian officials denied media speculation that it was putting political pressure on Iran under cover of the financial dispute.

"The fact that our Iranian partners have overcome their difficulties is positive, however, it far from compensates for the requirements of the (project) that have arisen during the period of nonpayment," Atomstroiexport spokesman Sergei Novikov said in a statement.

The company also said the new payment was just half of the monthly amount needed for a normal construction schedule to be resumed.

Myanmar allows foreign media into new capital

Source: CNN.

NAY PYI TAW, Myanmar (Reuters) -- Myanmar's secretive military government has allowed foreign journalists into its new capital for the first time since it quit the leafy colonial-era Yangon in October 2005.

"As far as I know, visas were granted to everyone who applied for them this time, including those who used to be on the blacklist," an Information Ministry official said on Monday.

About 50 foreign journalists had been given visas to cover Tuesday's Armed Forces Day ceremonies in Nay Pyi Taw, which translates as Royal City, he said without naming names on the blacklist.

Senior General Than Shwe, the 74-year-old paramount leader, will speak to 10,000 soldiers on a parade ground overlooked by statues of three former Burmese kings.

But the main draw for foreign reporters is Nay Pyi Taw, 240 miles (385 km) north of Yangon, to which the military moved the government overnight.

The government, which rivals North Korea in its isolation, argues the site midway between coastal Yangon and the second city of Mandalay will work better as a national capital.

But exiled dissident groups say they believe the military, which has ruled the former Burma in one form or another since 1962, was paranoid after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Some say astrological forecasts swayed Than Shwe into an abrupt move before the capital was ready while other analysts have suggested he was merely copying Burmese kings who liked to build a new capital to mark the beginning of a new dynasty.

Still, there is more for the foreign journalists to see than only six months ago, when the place was more of a construction site surrounded by jungle-clad hills than a city.

About half a dozen hotels have been opened recently, all fully booked by diplomats and other people attending the Armed Forces Day ceremonies.

And already there are complaints.

One journalist thought $70 a night for a room was reasonable. "But they charge an extra 20 dollars per night for the use of Internet from your room," he said.

However, the big challenge is simply getting to Nay Pyi Taw.

There are three flights a week from Yangon and getting a seat is difficult. So most people drive.

It takes at least seven hours to get to Nay Pyi Taw by car along the two-lane Yangon-Mandalay road that passes through the busy centers of about 20 towns.

"A new six lane highway is under construction bypassing all these towns. When it is finished, you will be able to make it in under five hours," driver Ko Kyaw Soe said.

"However, if they don't lift the ban on the import of cars, you will have to travel on the new road by old jalopies like mine," he said pointing to his 1996 model Toyota, a relatively young vehicle in a country where vintage cars are common.

Top officials: U.S. to impose Sudan sanctions soon

Source: CNN.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States will impose tough new measures against Sudan, likely within days, to try to force it to change course on Darfur and aims to pressure Khartoum militarily by helping rebuild forces in the south, U.S. officials said.

State Department, Defense, Treasury and other U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the goal was to "tighten the screws" on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and have him accept an international force in the vast western province.

A White House announcement on sanctions and a further limit on dollar transactions was expected very soon, a State Department official said.

Military options like a no-fly zone over Darfur -- which Britain wants -- or a forced intervention have been ruled out for now, but the Pentagon has done some "back of the envelope" calculations on what might be needed, a defense official said.

Some Sudan experts said the new sanctions were too little, too late.

"This is the right idea but it is simply not enough and not multilateral enough to make an impact, a dent, in the calculations of the Sudanese regime," said John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group.

The United States had threatened an unspecified "Plan B" by January 1 if Bashir did not agree to a U.N./African Union force in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 in what Washington says is this century's first genocide.

That deadline passed but it was Bashir's comments that he would not accept a hybrid force that pushed the administration to roll out "Plan B," senior officials said.

One idea: Bolster military force in the south

The U.S. government is also looking at how to change the military equation in Sudan.

One tactic is to help the government in the south build a strong force out of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army which was at war with the north until a 2005 peace deal.

"If he (Bashir) is faced with a credible force in the south, he will start to relook at how his forces are dispersed and where his risks are," the defense official said.

But the initial focus will be on putting the financial squeeze on Bashir.

About 130 firms with ties to Sudan's government, including the two leading oil companies, are already on a U.S. sanctions list barring them from doing business with the United States or from using U.S. financial institutions to do dollar transactions -- the favored currency for lucrative oil trades.

Other companies will be added to the list, current sanctions will be tightened and existing loopholes closed, making it harder to do dollar deals.

"The goal is to be more pro-active and have tighter enforcement (of sanctions)," said a Treasury Department official.

Aside from slapping travel and banking restrictions on at least three more Sudanese individuals, including a rebel leader, Washington also wants to put more pressure on splintered rebel groups in Darfur.

'You have to squeeze them all,' Khartoum and rebels both

"You have to squeeze them all," said the defense official. "The goal is to get both Bashir and the rebels to come to the conclusion that they are not going to get anywhere with their current course of action."

The United States is working closely with Britain, which takes over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council next month, and is planning a new resolution on Darfur.

But a senior U.S. official made clear the United States would not wait months for the United Nations to act.

Britain has been pushing for a no-fly zone in Darfur but the Pentagon sees that as fraught with problems, as it does a forced military intervention which would ostracize Arab nations still smarting from the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"When you look at a no-fly zone, the conclusion that pretty much everyone comes up with is that it will not have any impact at all," a defense official said.

With Sudan's limited number of fixed-wing aircraft, it would also be a logistical nightmare maintaining a no-fly zone in an area the size of Texas, the official said.

Calls to use Beijing Games to pressure China on Sudan

Source: CNN.

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China on Thursday blasted separate calls by a French politician and a Hollywood actress to use the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games to pressure Beijing into doing more to stop the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region.

In an article published in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow accused Beijing of "bankrolling Darfur's genocide" and called on director Steven Spielberg and four corporate sponsors to "add their ... voices to the growing calls for Chinese action to end the slaughter..."

"We don't think it is appropriate to link the Olympic Games in Beijing with the Darfur issue and we don't think it will be popularly accepted or echoed by people around the world," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

"It is a totally misguided approach for people to link the Darfur issue with the Games and try to tip the balance in their favor in order to enhance their own reputation," he said at a regular press briefing.

China, which buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil and sells it weapons and military aircraft, has opposed sanctions against Sudan.

Beijing, however, urged Sudan earlier this month to follow through on a plan to deploy U.N. peacekeepers to beef up 7,000 African Union troops who have been battling for nearly four years to quell the violence in Darfur.

Farrow wrote:"There is now one thing that China may hold more dear than their unfettered access to Sudanese oil: their successful staging of the 2008 Summer Olympics."

"That desire may provide a lone point of leverage with a country that has otherwise been impervious to all criticism." The editorial was co-authored by Farrow's son, Ronan.

Qin said he did not know who Farrow was and had not read the editorial.

French presidential candidate wants France to boycott Games

Last week, Francois Bayrou, a center-right candidate for France's presidency, proposed that his country's athletes boycott the Beijing Games in an effort to make China lean on Sudan's government.

Qin said he believed people who tried to link the Games with Darfur were unclear about China's policy on Sudan. He said China hopes "efforts by the international community could improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur and that the region could realize a lasting peace and stability."

A permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China has come under increasing international pressure to use its influence with Khartoum to resolve the conflict, which erupted in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of neglect.

The Sudanese government is accused of unleashing militias known as the janjaweed, which are blamed for the bulk of the conflict's atrocities. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have fled their homes in the past four years.

"We are confident that we will hold a successful and high quality Olympic Games in Beijing," Qin said.

Refugee crisis threatens to overwhelm Chad

Source: CNN.

ABECHE, Chad (AP) -- Chadian officials expressed concern Tuesday at the growing number of refugees fleeing the conflict in neighboring Sudan, which the U.N. humanitarian chief feared could become an intolerable burden on the country.

John Holmes visited this eastern Chad town on the second leg of a 10-day trip to the region, one week after the new U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs visited Darfur and South Sudan -- part of an effort to improve the bitter conditions under which aid workers have to operate.

"The camps could become an intolerable burden" on eastern Chad's scarce natural resources, Holmes said.

Violence has increasingly been spreading from Darfur into Chad. Nomads are raiding villages, there are intricate ethnic clashes and both the Chadian and the Sudanese governments have been trading accusations that they support each other's rebels groups.

"But one big difference between here and Sudan is that at least here authorities are very cooperative," with the international aid effort, Holmes said after meeting Touka Ramadan Kore, the governor of this eastern Chad region. "Their humanitarian needs are so big that they are happy to have us in the country."

More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur during four years of fighting between local rebels, the Sudanese army and their allied janjaweed militias. More than 2 million live in refugee camps scattered over the vast arid region, while another 230,000 now live in refugee camps on the Chadian side of the border.

But janjaweed raids and fighting by rebels along the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border has also spread the crisis into Chad itself, and about 140,000 Chadians moved to the refugee camps after their villages were destroyed.

Holmes said he was aware there were situations where refugee camps offered better living conditions than surrounding villages, which was creating tensions.

"We need to have an integrated approach to the whole region," said Holmes. One of the things he talked about with local authorities was how to ensure natural resources such as water and firewood, along with international aid, were fairly shared by local villagers and refugees.

Aid workers in eastern Chad said they felt they were managing to cope with the refugees from Sudan, but were now more worried with the increasing number of Chadian ones.

"The trend is not going down, because insecurity is still increasing," Kingsley Amanin, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Abeche, said of the internally displaced. "It's worrying because we simply don't have the resources to help them right now."

Chadian authorities, who provide protection to the refugee camps and often share a common ethnic background with people fleeing from Darfur, said they hoped Holmes' visit would help raise awareness to the crisis their region is facing.

"Our relations with the U.N. is very good," said Guede Borgou, the chief of staff for eastern Chad's governor. He said he hoped Holmes' visit would further boost cooperation. "It comes at a time when we really need it," he said.

The Sudanese army bombed a border zone with Chad earlier this month and aid workers fear the flow of refugees will only increase.

The Security Council has made plans to deploy 11,000 U.N. peacekeepers along the border to protect refugees, but Chad's President Idriss Deby has seemed uncertain about his recent approval for a military component to the mission.

Holmes said his brief did not include discussions on the peacekeeping mission, but said that "deploying a force along the border is a priority" and hoped it would occur soon.

U.N. envoy: 'Fragile' balance in Darfur could disintegrate

Source: CNN.

ES SALLAM, Sudan (Reuters) -- The new U.N. humanitarian chief warned Sunday that humanitarian efforts in Darfur could collapse if the situation deteriorates and aid workers are prevented from doing their work.

The warning came on a day of unusually heavy condemnation of the violence in Darfur, with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain proposing a no-fly zone over the region and German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the suffering of the Sudanese people had become "unbearable."

The U.N. chief, John Holmes, spoke while visiting a refugee camp on the outskirts of the town of El-Fasher in Darfur. He was on his first tour of the troubled region since becoming the international body's top humanitarian official. (Watch a U.S. senator say too little is being done to help the refugees )

Holmes had been barred by Sudanese soldiers from visiting another camp on Saturday, emphasizing, he said, the difficulties faced by aid workers here.

"This humanitarian effort is fragile," Holmes said, speaking from a camp that now houses some 45,000 people who have fled the violence. "If the situation deteriorates, it could collapse."

Holmes, who met with delegates of international aid groups during his two-day visit, said obstruction from Sudan's government and insecurity on the ground have created an environment where "morale is fragile" and could push aid workers to pull out.

"The risk is high," he said. "It is not imminent, but if things deteriorate, people may not want to maintain their efforts."

In need of aid are some 4 million people in Darfur whom the U.N. says have been caught in the midst of fighting between rebels, the government and the pro-government janjaweed.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in four years of fighting, with janjaweed Arab militias held responsible for widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians.

The U.N. says the conflict has chased 86,000 people from their homes just this year and blames the vast majority of these new refugees on violence perpetrated by central Sudanese government forces or their allied janjaweed militias.

Former rebels aligned with Minni Minawi, who signed a peace deal with the government last May and has joined forces with Sudan's central government, are increasingly blamed for the recent violence.

Holmes spoke from a camp called Es Sallam, one of three camps near El Fasher that is overspilling with people. Aid workers are currently negotiating space for a fourth camp to meet the incoming flow of refugees.

Holmes said people in the camp were not starving and health conditions seemed decent.

"This shows the enormous humanitarian effort that has been made for three years," he said, referring to the international aid effort in Darfur, which is the largest in the world with more than $1 billion spent and some 14,000 aid workers in the region.

The governor of north Darfur extended apologies to Holmes on Sunday for his being turned away Saturday when he tried to visit another notorious refugee camp.

Holmes said he accepted the apology but would nonetheless raise the issue with Sudanese officials. He said it illustrated the near-constant problems faced by relief workers trying to deliver aid to Darfur's population.

Meanwhile in Berlin on Sunday, German and British leaders at an EU summit called for an increase of sanctions against the Sudanese government.

"The actions of the Sudanese government are completely unacceptable," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "We need to get a new resolution in the United Nations which extends the sanctions regime ... We need to consider, in my view, a no-fly zone."