The African Union (AU) will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, according to a draft of an AU resolution. The AU has said the warrant would compromise peace efforts in Darfur and the 53 member organisation wants a deferment of the indictment, covering war crimes carried out during fighting in Sudan's Darfur region.

The AU summit statement said: "The African Union decides that in view of the fact that the request by the African Union has never been acted upon that AU member states shall not cooperate pursuant to the provisions of Article 98 of the Rome Statute on the ICC...or the arrest and surrender of African indicted personalities."

The draft will be discussed by African Union leaders. However, there did not appear to be a consensus among African leaders at the summit about supporting the draft.

Asked for his country's view on the document, Ghana's Foreign Minister, Mohammed Mumuni, told reporters: "That is not the position that we take." Former SA President Thabo Mbeki, is chairing an AU panel charged with helping to bring peace to Darfur by making recommendations to the AU's Peace and Security Council as an alternative to the ICC indictment.

International experts say 200 000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in the remote western region since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10 000. A senior Sudanese official at the AU summit said there was broad support among member states for the resolution but he accused countries outside the continent of trying to block it. "We have heard the Europeans are lobbying (against the draft)," Sudanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Salman al-Wasilla said.

"We ask the Europeans not to interfere. Most of our problems are coming from post-colonial countries." He said the resolution was needed because the ICC had ignored the AU's request to defer the indictment. "We have to confirm our position which is not negotiable," he said.

New York-based campaign group Human Rights Watch said that if the AU approved the draft resolution, it would mean the 30 African states who have signed up to the ICC would be in violation of their legal obligations. "Basically this would ... give a free pass to Omar al-Bashir to traipse freely around the continent," Reed Brody, legal counsel for Human Rights Watch said. – Reuters