UNITED NATIONS, July 23: Pakistan has called for renewed efforts to find a political solution to the Darfur crisis as the United States threatened to impose UN sanctions on Sudan.

The United States circulated a draft resolution on Thursday here asking the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Khartoum if it did not arrest militia leaders responsible for a wave of killings in the Darfur region.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who visited the United Nations to discuss the crisis with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said: "We have a humanitarian catastrophe on our hands, and it is the responsibility of all nations, through our collective voices at the United Nations and individually, to speak to the Sudanese government in very direct terms."

Bush administration is being pressured by several African leaders to intervene and stop the killings in the region. Diplomats here say that Pakistan's stand for a political settlement in Darfur is shared by several Security Council members who suggest to give more time to the Sudanese government to show progress and are of the opinion that tough measures might discourage it from cooperating at all.

Pakistan's Ambassador Munir Akram, in a closed-door session of the Council, spoke of Pakistan's close relationship with Sudan, saying: "We are as concerned as anyone else with regard to the fate of the people on both sides (of the conflict) as all are Muslims."

Issuing caveat against hasty action, Mr Akram said: "Why rebels had come to the negotiating table with pre-conditions? Was it because they (rebels) believed that they had the unconditional support of a certain major power and that the government of Sudan was going to bear the brunt?

"If that was the case, there would be little incentive for the rebels to be reasonable," the Mr Akram said. "The Council's action should be measured and balanced so as not to adversely the political negotiations."

Pakistan's chief delegate said there was a lot of talk of sanctions and also of what the western media has been calling "bad guys" - a reference to those members who oppose the US stand - and added: "Our people feel much more for the people of Sudan than those who are writing those editorials."

Mr Powell said on Thursday that there had been "some modest improvement in access" in Darfur and called for the world's humanitarian organizations "to take advantage of this" by rushing aid in but he said there had been no progress on security and that aerial bombings and killings were continuing.

MR POWELL ADDED: "A revised resolution that puts down specific timelines and carries the possibility of sanctions being imposed at the end of the initial time segment that's been given will be discussed actively among Security Council members in the days ahead, and, I hope, action will be taken in the not-too- distant future."

The United Nations estimates that 30,000 people have died and more than a million have been displaced since government- sponsored Arab militias began attacking their villages.

The draft resolution, which the United States hopes to introduce formally next week, urges all states to prevent arms and military equipment from getting to fighters and calls on other nations to provide more financial aid and to reinforce human rights observers and an African Union monitoring team going into the area.

The measure did not specify what sanctions should be applied, but it said they would become an option if the Sudanese government had not produced tangible evidence in 30 days that it was honouring its commitment to take action against militias.