The African Union on Monday urged Sudan to cooperate further with peace efforts in the country's Darfur region amid efforts to head off a possible arrest warrant against the head of state.

AU Commission chairman Jean Ping held what he described as "long" talks with President Omar al-Beshir, three weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor sought Beshir's arrest warrant for alleged crimes in Darfur.

The AU strongly supports Sudan against the ICC and has asked the UN Security Council to delay any legal proceedings against Beshir, saying such a move could inflame the five-year conflict in Darfur.

An AU-United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) in the western Sudan region is struggling to deploy adequate troops and air power -- still not pledged by the international community -- and unblock a stalled peace process.

Ping expressed hope that the Security Council would discuss "as soon as possible" a resolution that would delay ICC proceedings against Beshir.

"We think that the Sudanese government has accepted to cooperate with us since the beginning... and we want them to show it more. That's what we have been discussing with the authorities here," Ping told reporters.

Ping said he had received a "very positive answer" from Sudan in backing political efforts headed by new chief mediator on Darfur, Djibril Bassole, and promised to cooperate with the deployment of UNAMID troops and equipment.

Sudanese officials said that Ping presented close cooperation with the AU as a way of decreasing tensions on the ICC issue.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq said talks focused on the obstacles facing the UNAMID deployment, allowing Bassole to make political progress where his predecessors failed, and the ICC issue.

Sadiq said the perception was that "if Sudan and the African Union made major breakthroughs in UNAMID and the political process... (this) may ease tension between Sudan the ICC."

Ping said the AU had advised ICC prosecutors not to level accusations against Beshir, before the request for his arrest was made on July 14.

"While we are trying to extinguish the fire here with our troops, we don't understand very well that they choose that moment to put more oil in the fire by taking the decision," Ping said.

"You (the ICC) are dealing with people who died. We are also dealing with people who are still alive. You should take into account, not only the problem of justice, but also the problem of peace," said Ping.

Far from the angry reprisals that some predicted against UN peacekeepers in Darfur or mass demonstrations, Sudan has been pressing a diplomatic campaign, harnessing chiefly Arab and African support, to freeze possible proceedings.

In renewing the UNAMID mandate last week, the UN Security Council noted concern that any indictment of Beshir might jeopardise peace efforts.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Beshir of ordering his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.

According to the United Nations, up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

The war began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.