Sudan is threatening to expel peacekeepers stationed in the Darfur region if Omar al-Bashir, the president, is indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Last week, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief ICC prosecutor, asked judges to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, who he accuses of ordering the killing non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur.

"We are telling the world that with the indictment al-Bashir we can't be responsible for the wellbeing of foreign forces in Darfur," Bona Malual, a presidential adviser, said in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on Friday.
  
"After that we may ask them to withdraw from our territory." 

If the arrest warrant is granted, it would be the first issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

However, Khartoum does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC and had previously refused to hand over suspects demanded by the court.

"We will not submit our president to any kind of questioning or answering to a body Sudan is not part of," Malual said.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has urged Sudan to ensure the safety and security of the peacekeepers, some of whom have already been targeted.

Seven UN peacekeepers were killed when they were ambushed in North Darfur on July 8.

Darfur bombings

Khartoum's warning came as UN officials said that Sudanese aircraft had bombed the Darfur region this week despite al-Bashir making a highly publicised pledge to restore peace during a visit to the region.

The air raids are said to have taken place in the Tawila area, west of the town of El Fasher, where the UN-led peacekeeping mission in Darfur is based, as well as the Jebel Moon and Jebel Marra areas of western Darfur.
  
The two areas are respectively strongholds of the Sudan Liberation Movement-Unity and the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), rebel groups fighting government forces.

Barely a third of the projected peacekeeping force has been deployed [AFP]