By Patrick Worsnip UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The United Nations and United States reacted cautiously to an agreement between Sudan and a leading Darfur rebel group on Tuesday, saying it could be a first step toward peace but needed much more work. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations also said the deal signed in Qatar's capital Doha did not change Washington's opposition to deferring any indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court. The accord between Khartoum and the Justice and Equality Movement commits them to work toward an "early framework agreement" for a cessation of hostilities, followed by talks to end the 6-year-old conflict in a maximum of three months. It was not signed by any of Darfur's numerous other rebel groups. Summing up a U.N. Security Council closed debate on Darfur, Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu said the council, chaired this month by Japan, welcomed what he called a confidence-building agreement as a "step to the right direction." But he said challenges remained. "We really want to see that the fighting and hostility must come to an end. We don't want to see talking while fighting," he told reporters, adding that more groups must be brought into the process. Separately, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the accord was a "constructive step" but called for "comprehensive and inclusive talks." "Until the parties renounce hostilities, the situation in Darfur cannot improve," Ban said. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Washington remained "deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide in Sudan." She called the Doha deal "potentially a modest first step but it is not itself a cessation of hostilities or a ceasefire agreement and obviously all the rebel groups will need to be engaged." NO LINKAGE Rice said she saw no linkage between the Doha pact and a decision expected to be announced shortly by the Hague-based ICC on whether to indict Sudan's Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur, as requested by the court's chief prosecutor. "The United States position has been and remains that we see no circumstances or other actions to date that would change our judgment at this point that an Article 16 deferral is unwarranted," she said. China, Russia and Arab and African states have been urging the Security Council to use its power under Article 16 of the ICC statute to defer any ICC arrest warrant for Bashir. Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem called Tuesday "a great day for the people of Sudan" with the signing of what he termed a "landmark agreement" that would lead to the ending of the conflict in western Sudan "once and for all." Abdalhaleem said the deal had "defeated" the United States and dismissed as "ironic indeed" Rice's comments on the ICC. "If the ICC is (so) rosy and beautiful and lovable ... why did the U.S. not join the ICC? They want only to use the ICC politically. They are just opportunists," he said. Washington has refused to sign up to the ICC statute out of concern it could be used against U.S. servicemen. (Editing by Bill Trott)
Sudanese presidential adviser Nafie Ali Nafie gestures during a news conference after the signing of an agreement of good intentions at the latest meeting between representatives of the Sudanese government and ...
