Sudan said on Monday it would allow African troops to remain in Darfur only under African Union control and accused Washington of attempting "regime change" in Khartoum by trying to bring in a UN force.
Sudan raised fears its turbulent western region could descend into full-blown war after a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday AU troops monitoring a shaky cease-fire must leave when their mandate expired on September 30. The spokesman called the decision final.
But Presidential Adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Monday the government was merely responding to the AU's stance that it did not have the money or equipment to sustain its 7,000 troops in Darfur beyond the end of this month. "The AU has refused to extend its mandate beyond September 30. If they don't want to extend their mandate, they have to go," he said.
One African diplomat said the government softened its position overnight because they realised expelling the AU would end implementation of an AU-brokered May peace deal between Khartoum and one rebel faction fighting government-supported militias.
A US-British backed United Nations resolution, which Khartoum rejects, says more than 20,000 UN troops should take over peacekeeping from AU forces who have been unable to end the violence that has ravaged Darfur for 3-1/2 years.
AU troops were expected to fill the gap before the arrival of the United Nations and ultimately be absorbed into the UN operation, according to the resolution passed last Thursday.
Ismail said the government rejected that transition and argued the UN mandate's goal was "regime change". "Sudan will not accept those troops to be transformed into part of a UN force," he said. "Monitoring the borders ... protection of civilians ... creating an independent judiciary has all become the responsibility of the international forces, so what is left for the government?" he said, referring to resolution clauses.
"The United States has a clear strategy ... of trying to weaken this government ... or trying to change the government," Ismail told reporters. El Tayeb Ahmed, charges d'affaires of Sudanese embassy to Ethiopia, told Reuters in Addis Ababa Sudan was seeking clarification from the AU on its intentions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was visiting AU headquarters in Addis on Monday, criticised the UN resolution on Darfur, saying it "was taken in haste without continued consultation with the government of Sudan".