LONDON, England (AP) - A majority of United Nations Security Council members oppose immediate heavy sanctions on Sudan if that country fails to quell ethnic violence in the Darfur region by the end of the month, Britain's Foreign Office said yesterday.

On July 30, the Security Council gave the government in Khartoum 30 days to disarm Arab militias blamed for killing thousands of black African farmers, or face economic or diplomatic punishment.

More than a million people have been forced to flee their homes in the western region in what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Briefing reporters Friday ahead of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's visit to Sudan, officials said council members were still debating what action to take if the deadline is missed.

"The natural centre of gravity in the council is not the immediate imposition of heavy-duty sanctions on Sudan," said a senior Foreign Office official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The natural instinct of the majority of the council will not be on August 30th 'let's slap on some heavy-duty sanctions on Sudan."

Some countries were opposed in principle to sanctions, others feared that vested interests in Sudan would be damaged by economic embargoes, and others, including Britain, were wary of giving the impression that the "international community is beating up on the government of Sudan," he added.

The official, who will accompany Straw on the two-day visit beginning Monday, said possible action ranged from the soft option of rolling over the deadline for another 30 days, to heavy-duty sanctions such as an oil embargo. Travel bans on Sudanese ministers and freezing assets were other possibilities, the official said.

The Security Council will consider how much progress the Sudanese Government has made in providing proper access to humanitarian groups, tackling human rights abuses, providing security to people in Darfur and negotiating with rebel groups, he added. Members would want to see "measurable, genuine compliance" by Khartoum, he said.

The Darfur conflict began 18 months ago when black African rebel groups rose up against Sudan's Arab-dominated government, claiming discrimination in the distribution of the large, arid region's scarce resources.

Since then, Arab militias, called the Janjaweed and purportedly backed by the government, have gone on a rampage, destroying villages, killing and raping across the western Sudanese region.

Some 180,000 refugees already have crossed into neighbouring Chad, where they are scattered along the border or have been moved to camps away from the volatile frontier. The United Nations yesterday warned that tens of thousands more refugees could flee Darfur, putting further pressure on strained resources in Chad.

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