WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Wednesday that Sudan has weeks to take concrete action to meet its obligations and avoid sanctions over the settlement of Darfur crisis.

    "(Sudanese) President Beshir does have some time" before facing sanctions, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a news briefing.

    "He has weeks in order to fully meet the commitments that he signed on to," McCormack said of an agreement signed by Sudan last year to allow UN-led troops into Darfur where bloody conflicts have claimed lives of tens of thousands of people over the past four years.

    U.S. President George W. Bush threatened earlier Wednesday to tighten economic sanctions and impose new punishments if Sudan fails to take concrete action to meet its obligations over Darfur crisis.

    Warning it is last chance for Sudan, Bush said: "If President Bashir does not meet his obligations, the United States will act."

    Sudan's envoy to the United Nations announced Monday that the Sudanese government has approved a UN plan to send attack helicopters to support the African Union (AU) force in war-torn Darfur.

    Prior to Sudan's announcement, Washington said it had decided to delay unilateral new sanctions against Sudan over the Darfur crisis to give the United Nations more time to negotiate with Khartoum.

    U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exchanged views with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday and again Wednesday over the Darfur issue, McCormack said.

    The Bush administration planned to impose new, stricter sanctions on the Sudanese government over its handling of the Darfur crisis. The sanctions would include sanctions on 29Sudanese companies, in addition to existing sanctions on 130 other Sudanese firms.

    The United Nations, the African Union and the Sudanese government agreed in November 2006 on the three-phase support plan which was also known as the Annan plan as it was put forward by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

    With the first phase of the plan, a light support package already underway, the three parties reached an agreement in principle in Addis Ababa on April 9 to inaugurate the second phase of a UN support plan for the AU mission in Darfur, known as "the heavy support phase."

    But the Sudanese government's opposition for the deployment of attack helicopters in Darfur had blocked the scheduled implementation of the second phase.

    In war-torn Darfur, at least 200,000 people have reportedly been killed since 2003 in ethnic and political conflict triggered by a rebellion.

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    President: Sudan's problems created by western intelligence and organizations

    KHARTOUM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir said on Wednesday that all the problems in his country were created by western intelligence and organizations, accusing the American administration of being the major cause of these problems.

    Al-Bashir made the remarks while addressing a mass rally at his hometown of Hosh Banaga, Nahral-Neil State, in northern Sudan, in the presence of a visiting American media delegation comprising journalists of more than 30 U.S. press institutions, the official Sudanese SUNA news agency reported.