UNITED NATIONS – The Security Council is set to approve a resolution today threatening Sudan with international sanctions if it fails to stop the continuing atrocities in the Darfur region.

The vote, expected this morning, was made possible after America, which sponsored the resolution, removed the word “sanctions” from the text, even though it said the threat was left intact.

“It turns out that the use of that word is objectionable to certain members,” said the American ambassador, John Danforth. “They would rather use what I would call U.N.-speak for exactly the same thing.”

The change was highly technical. Instead of directly threatening Khartoum with sanctions, the new text refers to “measures as provided in Article 41” of the U.N. Charter, which allows the council to impose such sanctions as trade embargoes and severance of diplomatic relations.

It supplied some in the 15-member council with the cover they needed.

“The United States has shown flexibility and addressed most of the concerns” brought up in the council, Algerian Ambassador Abdallah Baali, the only Arab member of the council, told The New York Sun.

Several diplomats said the resolution was likely to pass with no opposition, even though some might still abstain. Mr. Danforth said he hoped for a unanimous vote in favor of the resolution.

“It is not a perfect text, there is never a perfect text in the council,” Mr. Baali said, but now it is “much closer to a consensus resolution.”

The Algerian ambassador, who had said all week the “indignation over Darfur is nobody’s monopoly,” but nevertheless was reserved about supporting any action against a fellow Arab government, reflected the uneasiness in some Arab capitals.

One diplomat from a moderate Arab state, who requested anonymity, said he was “ashamed” at the way the Arab League was rushing to defend the government of Sudan from any action against it.

The horrors in the region – where as many as 50,000 have been killed by the government-backed nomadic Arab Janjaweed militias and more than 1.2 million, most of them Muslim blacks, were driven from their homes – were shown nightly on Arab satellite channels, and the Al Jazeera offices in Sudan were shuttered by the government. Yesterday, Khartoum also called for legal action against the BBC.

Also yesterday, Mr. Annan’s spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said that he was “gravely concerned” by fresh reports of continuing intimidation, threats, and attacks in Darfur. “He is particularly disturbed by reports of rape by Janjaweed militias in West Darfur,” she said as well as harassment by government security personnel against those who had to flee their villages.

The Associated Press, meanwhile, cited a report by African Union monitors that said Arab militias chained civilians together and set them on fire in western Darfur.

Disregarding the horrifying images, the Cairo-based Arab League mounted a diplomatic campaign against imposing any sanctions on its member, Sudan. Imposing sanctions would put Sudan, an Arab League member,”in a corner [and] not allow it to be an effective partner,” league spokesman Hossam Zaki said in Cairo on Wednesday.

And the Arab League was not the only one to lobby against sanctions on Khartoum. Yesterday, it was not clear whether China, Pakistan, and even Russia would support the resolution, although nobody expected China or Russia to use their veto power.

Diplomats cited extensive oil relations between China and Sudan, as well as a MiG jet fighter deal between Khartoum and Moscow, as possible reasons. Sudanese Ambassador Elfatih Erwa dismissed that notion, telling the Sun, “The United States also has oil interests [in Sudan], not only China.”

But in America, the public outrage has become a political cry for action. Yesterday, ice cream manufacturers Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were arrested as they demonstrated in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, demanding tough action against Khartoum.

The resolution the council was expected to pass today requests Mr. Annan to report in 30 days, and monthly afterward, “on the progress or lack thereof” of Khartoum’s implementation of its commitment to disarm the Janjaweed, arrest its members, and bring them to justice.

If Mr. Annan reports no progress, this would become the trigger for the council to impose sanctions. Aides to Mr. Annan, who yesterday attended an African summit in Accra, Ghana, said that monitoring implementation would include several U.N. teams on the ground, as well as A.U. observers.

Mr. Danforth, who defined this mechanism as a 30-day ticking “clock,” said the point was that “the tragedy of Darfur is not going to be permitted to fall off the table as far as international attention is concerned.”