KHARTOUM (AFP) - The new international mediator for the Darfur conflict said on Sunday he was impressed to see initiatives for peace and dialogue during his first visit to Sudan since his appointment.

"I was impressed to see... desire and initiatives to start to promote dialogue, peace and stability in Sudan. And this is the direction in which I am going to work in the coming days," Djibril Bassole told reporters.

His visit comes with Sudan on a diplomatic offensive in a bid to avert legal action against President Omar al-Beshir after the prosecutor of the world court sought his arrest warrant on charges of genocide and war crimes in Darfur.

Although appointed joint African Union-United Nations mediator for Darfur last month, Bassole told reporters that he was in Sudan while still Burkina Faso foreign minister to familiarise himself with the issues.

He described the task ahead as "difficult, but not impossible" and said it would be for the Sudanese to define the main priorities of his job.

"We need to call for an end to hostilities to create the conditions for finding a comprehensive political solution," Bassole added.

His appointment came after months of waiting for a permanent joint mediator amid criticism that the previous UN envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim did not spend enough time in Sudan.

The UN-brokered peace process on Darfur has stalled ever since talks in Libya last October were boycotted by key rebel factions.

The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003. The Sudanese government says 10,000 have been killed.

The conflict began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.

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