Sudan says no Darfur bombings, security better

Sudan said on Wednesday that UN reports of helicopter gunship attacks in its troubled Darfur region were baseless and the security in the western region was improving but takes time.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Najeeb Al-Kheir Abdul Wahab told Reuters from Khartoum that Jan Pronk, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sudan, signed on Tuesday an assessment saying that the government made "significant progress" in security and protection.

"We believe that this statement is very vague and it's baseless and I believe that it is inconsistent with the judgment made by the Special Representative Jan Pronk," he said.

Abdul Wahab also said that achieving security in Darfur, a remote area, the size of tens of thousands of men carrying arms, was a complicated process and would take time.

"Security and protection shall not be achieved through decrees alone. This is a very complicated process," he said, adding that it was also a gradual process.

"We need to work on the protection. But now it is better than yesterday and yesterday is better than the day before."

The United Nations said on a statement in Tuesday that Janjaweed attacks were continuing on more than one million displaced by fighting in Darfur, and that Sudan has carried out fresh helicopter gunship attacks in south Darfur.

Abdul Wahab dismissed the statement as "baseless and untrue."