A U.N. human rights team is accusing Sudan's government of direct involvement with war crimes in Darfur.

The National Redemption Front (NRF) strongly deplores fatalities on AU forces in Darfur. But regrets that the AU involvement in Darfur peace process has been a spectacular failure.

The UN special envoy to Sudan, Jan Eliasson, briefed the Security Council Tuesday on the situation in Darfur. As VOA correspondent Barbara Schoetzau reports from New York, the former General Assembly president voiced new concerns about fighting in the south.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has released the State Department's 2006 Human Rights report, which cites the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region as "the most sobering reality of all."

The U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, returned to that country Friday in a new effort to expedite deployment of an upgraded peacekeeping force for the Darfur region. The proposed hybrid African Union and United Nations force remains under-subscribed.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in Sudan for two days of meetings with his Sudanese counterpart and other officials. The talks are expected to cover the situation in Darfur, Iran's controversial nuclear program, and economic and cultural projects between the two countries.

The African Union has warned that violent clashes between nomadic Arab tribes are heating up in south Darfur. A series of recently attacks by the Reizegat tribe has paralyzed much of the region. Noel King reports for VOA from Kaas, south Darfur.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has arrived in Libya for talks on Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

Violence and refugees strung along the border of Chad, Central African Republic and Sudan continue to worry international leaders. The U.N. special representative for West Africa is hopeful about a renewed peace agreement among the three countries' leaders.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has accused Sudan's president of breaking a promise to allow a human rights mission to visit Darfur.

French President Jacques Chirac is urging Sudan to accept more peacekeepers in its troubled Darfur region, while also pushing for a meeting between Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and other African leaders at a France-Africa summit in Cannes, France.

A United Nations human rights team says it will complete its Darfur mission outside of Sudan after being denied visas to enter the country.