"KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Sudan gave African Union troops a one-week ultimatum to accept a deal that would block a proposed U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur or else leave the war-torn region, a step that would likely worsen the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

The deadline announced Monday escalates Khartoum's standoff with the United Nations over Darfur to a key crisis point, pitting Khartoum's determination to resist possible war crimes investigations against the U.N.'s appetite for a new, rough peacekeeping mission.

Many observers believe Sudan has dug in against a U.N. deployment in the vast western region because it fears the force will hunt down officials and government allies suspected of war crimes for atrocities against Darfur's ethnic Africans.

At the same time, the United States and Europe have stepped up their demands that Sudan let in the U.N. troops, which still must be assembled at a time when the world body it putting together a peacekeeping force for south Lebanon. Sweden and Norway underlined on Monday that they were prepared to contribute to a Darfur intervention.

European Union spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio warned of dire consequences if the African Union is forced to pull out before a U.N. force can take over.

"There would be a very difficult scenario," Altafaj Tardio said in a telephone interview. "We need a stronger force on the ground to ensure security. It is crucial to reach an agreement with the Sudanese before that deadline."

The removal of the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur would raise the prospect of a new upsurge of fighting in the region, where some 200,000 have been killed and 2.5 million people displaced since 2003."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/09/05/sudan.darfur.ap/index.html