UNITED NATIONS, Sept 8: The Security Council could take action on the crisis engulfing the Darfur region of Sudan within the next week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday , stressing that "more can and should be done" to improve security in the war-torn region and urging international support for the African monitors deployed there.

Mr Annan made remarks to reporters on arrival at UN Headquarters, where he had separate meetings with a former Sudanese Prime Minister and a rebel leader. While recalling that in a report to the Council last week he had noted an improvement on granting humanitarian access to Darfur, he warned that security problems persist.

Khartoum "must redouble its efforts to protect the population" of an estimated 1.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), he said. "Obviously the situation on the ground could be better. We are not satisfied with the security front. We believe that more can and should be done," he added.

Mr Annan said the Council should expand the size of the force of African Union monitors (AU) from its original "woefully inadequate" number to better protect the IDPs and to restore security.

"I hope the international community will support them [the AU monitoring force] financially, logistically and also in other ways." In his report to the Council, he said the notorious Janjaweed militias had conducted a "scorched-earth policy" against Darfur's civilians since conflict began there early last year when two rebel groups took up arms against the government.

Mr Annan said most of the militias had not been disarmed and continue to carry out attacks, killing, raping and assaulting villagers and generally traumatizing the inhabitants.

On Tuesday he held meetings with El Sadiq El Mahdi, former Sudanese Prime Minister, and John Garang, leader of the southern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), about the situation in Darfur and also the peace talks taking place in Naivasha, Kenya, to end the separate civil war in the country's south.

The UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said Dr Garang and Mr Annan discussed the need to intensify efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis and to complete the Naivasha talks.