UNITED NATIONS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday called on the world community to follow up on last week's peace accord between the Sudanese Government and the main rebel group in Darfur by establishing a strong UN peacekeeping force and providing immediate aid to prevent hundreds of thousands more people from dying.

    Annan told a ministerial meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Sudan that Darfur is still far from being at peace, and a vast amount has to be done and no time to lose.

    He listed such tasks as convincing rebel leaders who have not signed the peace agreement, ensuring that the signatories of the agreement actually implement it, and ensuring that the people of Darfur can survive the next few months.

    He said the African Union Mission in Sudan(AMIS), currently the only force that provides protection to the people in Darfur, must be transformed into a larger and more mobile UN operation, better equipped and with a stronger mandate. "We are now mobilizing all our energies to make that happen," the UN chief said.

    Annan also singled out the urgent need of raising more money for emergency relief, noting that region is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis. He warned that hundreds of thousands more people will die from hunger, malnutrition and disease if massive and immediate support is not provided.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said an important step had been taken towards inter-Sudandese reconciliation. Progress in the Abuja talks had been possible thanks to the Sudanese government's willingness to compromise. He urged all the other parties to seize the opportunity to restore peace, and reaffirmed Russia's support to the efforts of the international community and its readiness to make every effort to help maintain the territorial integrity of the Sudan.

    Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said the signing of the Abuja agreement demonstrated that with the support of the international community, African problems could be solved through reliance on African leadership and African methods. He expressed China's hope that those parties that have not signed the agreement to do so. He said the implementation of the agreement required the international community to provide effective help, as the capacity of AMIS had been severely strained.

    Stressing the sole purpose of a UN operation in Darfur is to assist the Sudanese government and various factions in the region to implement the peace accord, Li said the consent and cooperation of the Sudanese government are prerequisites for the deployment of a UN operation.

    U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Security Council to press all the parties in the Sudan to implement the agreement. She said the U.S.-led resolution called for the speedy transformation of the African Union mission into a more robust UN peacekeeping mission mandate with the capacity of protecting civilians. The international community must also do more to alleviate the suffering of the people of Darfur, especially as hunger and disease continued to take a staggering number of lives.

    Tanzanian Foreign Minister Asha Rose Mtengeti-Migiro said the UN Security Council must do its part help the peace become a reality. She urged all parties not to do anything to undermine any element of the agreement, and said her country was particularly concerned by ongoing attacks against civilians in the region.

    The Sudanese government and the main faction of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), one of the two rebel groups in Darfur signed a peace agreement in Abuja last Friday. But another rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, and a splinter faction of the SLM rejected the deal. Enditem