NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said here on Monday that his government is open to the idea of granting some sort of autonomy to the western Darfur region where a 19-month conflict has caused a serious humanitarian crisis.

    In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Ismail said Khartoum is willing to discuss federalism orautonomy in its peace talks with the two rebel forces operating inDarfur.

    Ismail was reacting to a recent suggestion by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers that the Sudanese government would have to agree to power-sharing in Darfur in orderto achieve a political settlement for the conflict.

    The government and the two rebel groups -- the Sudan LiberationArmy and the Justice and Equality Movement -- ended their peace talks in Abujia, the capital of Nigeria, this month without any progress. The talks will reopen in early October.

    Ismail blamed the United States for the collapse of the talks, which is currently focusing on the security issue. "The United States should stop encouraging the rebels not to be cantoned ... stop giving wrong signals to the rebels so they can reach to a political settlement," he said.

    The rebels' position got "rigid" after the US administration declared the situation in Darfur as "genocide" and started pushingthe UN Security Council to adopt a second resolution threatening sanctions against Sudan, he noted.

    Citing media reports, Ismail accused the United States of usingDarfur's humanitarian problem for "a political agenda for election." "Both the Democrats and the Republicans are competing for African-American votes," he said.

    Ismail said Sudan has difficulty in disarming militias in Darfur unless the rebels are cantoned as called for by the AfricanUnion (AU).

    Under an AU resolution, the rebels should be cantoned at mutually agreed sites and, simultaneously, the militias and all other outlaw groups should be disarmed by the Sudanese government.

    Ismail said tribes which formed the militias fear that they, ifdisarmed, could be attacked again by the rebels which refuse to move into designated areas.

    But he said that unlike other militias which were established to defend themselves from rebel attacks, the Janjaweed is an armedgroup composed of "killers," "bandits" and "robbers," and should be disarmed and disbanded.

    Ismail said Sudan welcomed the AU's intention to increase its monitors in Darfur by thousands and the two sides will likely reach an agreement on the number and mandate of the expanded mission in the first week of October.

    But he reiterated that Sudan would not agree to turn the mission into a peacekeeping force.

    Ismail also denied the accusation by the United States and European countries that the violence in Darfur is a "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing."

    Noting that the population in Darfur is "100 percent" Sunni Muslims, he said the Darfur conflict is neither "religious" nor "ethnic," but a tribal one between nomadic tribes and farmers, who have vied for water resources for decades.

    While questioning the death toll of 30,000 to 50,000, estimatedby UN agencies and some Western governments, from the Darfur conflict, Ismail put the toll at "no more than 5,000."

    "We're challenging them to give us their names, or their families, or even their graves for those who have been killed," hesaid. "(But they gave) no answer."

    Meanwhile, Ismail again warned the Security Council against imposing any sanctions on its oil industry, saying that that woulddeny the country money to meet humanitarian needs in Darfur.

    It would be "the most fatal mistake" the council has made if itdecided to put in place any sanctions on Sudan, he said, adding that Khartoum would "definitely" not cooperate with the punitive measure. Enditem