U.S. denounces Sudan's expulsion of UN envoy

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced on Monday Sudan's expulsion of a top U.N. envoy and said she would discuss the matter with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"It is unfortunate in the extreme," Rice said.

Rice made the remarks after Jan Pronk, Annan's special representative, was asked by Sudan to leave the country.

On Sunday, the Sudanese foreign ministry gave Pronk three days to leave.

Last Thursday, the Sudanese army announced that Pronk was "not welcomed... for his flagrant interference in the army's affairs."

The Sudanese side also accused him of launching a psychological war on the Sudanese army by spreading fabricated false information doubting the army's capability to maintain the security and stability of the country.

Pronk wrote in his web blog last week that the Sudanese army had lost two major battles in Darfur, one in Umm Sidir last month and the other in Karakaya earlier this month, and suffered heavy casualties.

Conflicts flared up in Darfur in February 2003, after local rebels took up arms against the government, accusing it of neglecting the region. The violence has killed and displaced many people.

The Sudanese government rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution to deploy U.N. blue berets in Darfur and asked African Union peacekeepers to extend their mission there instead.

Washington has urged Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers or face "consequences."

Source: Xinhua