NAIROBI (AFP) - Sudan on Tuesday warned that peacekeeping in the troubled Darfur region would suffer if the International Criminal Court indicted President Omar al-Beshir for war crimes and genocide.

Sudan would not accept the presence of a peacekeeping force on standy-by in Darfur to arrest the president when he visited the region, presidential advisor Bonal Malual told reporters.

He was speaking a day after talks with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

"We cannot let such a responsibility hang on us when we cannot be in charge as a 'sovereign, independent state of Darfur' because it is a responsibility that no one should undertake lightly so the people leaving in Darfur should be surprised when they are told to withdraw," he added.

Malual hinted that measures could include denying or withdrawing visa for foreign nationals in Darfur to enable the the government to enforce security there.

Worried by the fallout from Moreno-Ocampo's initiative, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged Khartoum to ensure the safety and security of the peacekeepers, some of whom have been targeted in the volatile region.

Since African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission UNAMID took over from a small African Union force on December 31, only 7,600 troops and 1,500 police have been deployed.

That is barely a third of the projected total of 19,500 soldiers and 6,500 policemen.

Last week, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked ICC judges to issue a warrant for Beshir's arrest for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Moreno-Ocampo accused Beshir of having personally instructed his forces to destroy in substantial part three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur: the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

He said the president had masterminded the murder, torture and rape of civilians to commit genocide.

If the ICC judges grant his request, a decision that could take several months, it would be the first warrant issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

But Mulual said the allegations were no-more than a "political agenda" by some western nations interested in exploiting the oil resources in the Sudan.

"This is a much bigger case than what is going on in the Darfur," he added.

In Kampala, Sudan's Vice President Salva Kiir held talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as Khartoum intensified its campaign to rally African leaders behind Beshir, a presidential spokesman told AFP.

Kiir told Museveni the "ICC should give the Sudanese government time to solve its own problems ... there is no need for ICC intervention," Museveni's spokesman Tamale Mirundi said.

The African Union has urged the UN Security Council to delay the ICC move, warning that an indictment might jeopardize efforts to stabilize Darfur.

On Monday, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, warned that any bid to put Beshir on trial for war crimes in Darfur would prove counter-productive.

The UN says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

It began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum 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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