US renews push for oil sanctions on Sudan

The United States said on Tuesday it was renewing its push for U.N. sanctions on Sudan's oil industry to press Khartoum to stop the violence in Darfur, despite a failure to win support for the step last year.  The State Department hopes a new U.N. report that found the Sudanese government and allied militia systematically abused civilians in Darfur would prompt U.S. Security Council members to take stronger action against Khartoum. But it acknowledged the report failed to back the U.S. contention that Khartoum was responsible for genocide in Darfur and said Washington had yet to see any change of heart among Security Council members such as China that oppose oil sanctions and refused to endorse them last year.  "The United States is now proposing to other council members a number of elements: an accountability tribunal, deployment of peacekeepers and the imposition of sanctions, which we believe up the ante and do move aggressively to try to stop those atrocities," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. Without providing details, Boucher told reporters Washington had proposed "oil sanctions," an assets freeze and travel ban on Sudanese officials and militia members and the extension of an arms embargo on the government.  Sudan's crude oil production is roughly 345,000 barrels per day, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Energy, amounting to about half the production from the smallest OPEC-member, Qatar. [more]

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