China has rejected U.S. plans for more sanctions against Sudan and has called for more patience to resolve the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. China also defended its investments in Sudan as helping to bring about peace.

Sudan says President Bush is unjustified in his decision to impose new sanctions on Khartoum because of the situation in Darfur. Before the sanctions were even announced at the White House on Monday, Sudanese officials protested the threat, saying every effort is being made to end the conflict in Darfur.

The United States will slap fresh sanctions on Sudan over the Darfur conflict on Tuesday and seek a tough new UN Security Council resolution punishing Khartoum.

UN Security Council today called for the immediate implementation of a joint report of the United Nations and the African Union (AU) that sets out the mandate and structure for the planned hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping mission for the violence-wracked Darfur region of Sudan.

The Chinese government says it is urging Sudan to be more flexible in allowing U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur. A spokeswoman in Beijing says China's new special envoy for Africa pressed the Khartoum government on the issue during his just-completed trip to the region.

The arrival of United Nations peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region is slow, according to an African Union official, who says at this rate, the deployment will take months to complete. He spoke to VOA as the African Union Peace and Security Council paid a visit to Darfur, where two-and-one-half million people remain homeless due to violence.

The United Nations human rights office has accused Sudanese security forces of indiscriminately killing more than 100 civilians in South Darfur over the first three months of this year. The charges appear in a U.N. report released Friday that covers the human rights situation in Darfur between January and March.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie and actor Brad Pitt have donated $1 million towards the humanitarian effort assisting millions of people affected by the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, the agency has announced.

China has appointed a special Africa envoy whose first task will be to focus on the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. The appointment was announced after U.S. lawmakers warned China of a backlash if it does not do more to pressure Sudan.

Rights group Amnesty International has accused China and Russia of breaching a United Nations arms embargo by letting weapons into Sudan that were then used in the Darfur region.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the latest agreement between Chad and Sudan aimed at calming tensions in the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur and the eastern area of the neighbouring country.

U.S. officials say China is willing to send hundreds of engineers to Sudan's troubled Darfur region as part of a planned United Nations-backed deployment of peacekeepers.