NAIROBI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan Muslims on Monday condemned the International Criminal Court' s (ICC) move to indict Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over war crimes in Darfur and urged the African Union (AU) to spearhead efforts in finding a lasting solution to the strife-torn region.

    Addressing a news conference in Kenya, the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, an umbrella organization all of Muslims in the country, said the AU in consultation with regional countries should form a standing committee on Darfur to conduct independent investigations into war crimes in the troubled region.

    "The work of the would-be Standing committee should be conducted as a rapid response initiative and to report within a period of three months to the appointing authority," SUPKEM chairman Abdulghafur El-Busaidy told journalists in Nairobi.

    "The report, its contents not withstanding, should be discussed in an extra ordinary Summit of the African Heads of State, where in our considered opinion lies solutions to the African problems," he said.

    The ICC's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is seeking an arrest warrant for President al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, for his role in the government's policies in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where a conflict with rebel groups has killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people since 2003.