UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday urged the Security Council to move faster to confront the crisis in Sudan, as the world body's humanitarian chief said women and girls in the conflict-plagued Darfur region are suffering from an increasing wave of rapes.
Annan had hoped council ambassadors would break a deadlock over his proposal to send 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers to monitor a peace accord ending years of civil war between the government and southern rebels.
He also hoped to use a resolution focusing on the end of the north-south conflict to ease violence in the western Darfur region. In early February, a U.N. panel found evidence of crimes against humanity there, but council members still have not been able to agree on action.
Meanwhile, Annan said, ``We keep getting reports which show that the killing and raping and burning are still going on.''
In Khartoum, Sudan, the United Nations' Jan Egeland said violence against women has been so bad that the government has appealed for help. The government conceded that ``this is now a reality and that they want to work with the African union and us to clamp down and have those responsible punished and also to prevent future acts by protecting women,'' Egeland said.
Egeland said government soldiers, militiamen and other armed men were believed to be carrying out the rapes.
The Darfur conflict has forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes and left more than 70,000 dead, mainly from disease and hunger.
In a statement released after the hour-long meeting in New York, Annan said it was possible that U.N. peacekeepers could complement African Union troops now in Darfur but he wanted the 53-nation African bloc to play the lead role. The African Union has deployed about 1,800 soldiers of an expected 4,000-strong force.
Annan said the council reported Monday that members hoped for a Sudan resolution this week that would include a mechanism for holding people accountable for crimes there, although several Security Council ambassadors said no such mechanism has been agreed on.
A dozen of the 15 council members want to refer suspects to the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Court. The United States, an opponent of that body, wants them tried in a new tribunal in Tanzania, an idea which council diplomats say has little support.
Greece's U.N. Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis acknowledged the sides appeared no closer to than before on finding a way to bring war crimes suspects to justice.
``How it's going to be solved, don't ask me, I cannot guess,'' he said.
Despite continued disagreements, ambassadors said they recognized the need for quick action and expected a resolution soon.
``We all understand that we have to move faster,'' Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov said. ``So the main reason for that meeting was to try to speed up.''
The Darfur conflict began after two non-Arab rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in a bid to win more political and economic rights for the region's African tribes. The Arab militias responded by attacking African villages, killing the inhabitants and their livestock and sending refugees fleeing across the desert.
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Associated Press Writer Mohamed Osman contributed to this report from Khartoum, Sudan.