http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20050108/ap_on_re_mi_ea/powell_sudan_1<snip>
NAIROBI, Kenya - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) on Saturday declined to say whether Sudan was still carrying out ethnic genocide in Darfur, but warned that the government could face U.N. penalties if the violence in the region continues.
Powell also said a hard-won agreement to end the fighting between Sudan's government and southern rebels could provide momentum for settling the conflict in Darfur, which is in the west.
After a tour of tsunami-ravaged countries in South Asia, Powell was in Kenya's capital to represent the United States at Sunday's signing of the peace deal settling the conflict in southern Sudan. The United States and other countries helped push the two sides to end the fighting, which was blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.
Powell expressed no reservations that his presence was lending U.S. imprimatur to an incomplete solution in ethnically divided Sudan.
"I think this agreement stands on its own merits," Powell said at a news conference with the top rebel leader from the south, John Garang, and Sudan's vice president, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha.