UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council and America yesterday leaned toward beefing up the military presence in the Darfur region of Sudan and indicated they would support an African force there to stop the carnage.

While denying they have given up on the possibility of sanctions against Sudan in the next council meeting, expected in early September, the Americans hinted that they would now push for a strong military presence of African Union troops in Darfur and support it in all ways possible.

Even Britain, America’s closest international ally, yesterday all but acknowledged that sanctions could not be achieved at the present time. Foreign Minister Jack Straw, on a visit to Abu Shouk, a Darfur refugee camp, said yesterday that the Sudanese government had made progress after it was threatened with sanctions last month.

“The issue is not whether everything has been resolved by the 30-day period set by the Security Council,” he said, but whether the government is “on track” to implementation. “No one is going soft on anything,” he insisted. “This is a very imperfect situation.”

Instead, the attention was shifted to the African Union. After a closed-door briefing by two U.N. officials and long consultations, the Security Council issued a statement extending “strong support” for the African Union’s efforts and urged the Sudanese government to cooperate with it.

Next week, the House of Representatives’ head of the Appropriations Committee, James Kolbe, a Republican of Arizona, is expected to visit Darfur. One American diplomat told The New York Sun that the purpose of the visit is to show an American willingness for support by all means, including financially, of a strong African Union presence in the region.

“People are still dying and they’re still scared in Darfur and I think the important thing is to address the protection and security issues,” American deputy ambassador Stuart Holliday told reporters.

Mr. Holliday added he would like to “applaud” the African Union. “We heard from General Cammaert today on some finite proposals about strengthening their monitoring and protection capacity in Darfur.”

He referred to the U.N. department of peacekeeping official, Patrick Cam maert, who told the council, according to one diplomat present, of a proposal for a 3,000-troop military force composed of African Union members, and 1,500 additional civilians that would be sent to the region, where more than a million people have been driven from their homes, and nearly 50,000 have already died.

The Sudanese government, however, said it would oppose any presence of African Union military personnel. It commented after the organization’s top negotiator, Nigeria’s president, Olusegun Obasanjo, offered in talks in the capital, Abuja, to send peacekeepers to the region.

Sudan’s negotiator at the talks, Agricultural Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmad, said his government would accept only the small, 300-troop monitoring force that is already in Darfur. Keeping security, he added, is “the role of the government of Sudan.”

But the assistant secretary general, Tuliameni Kalomoh, told the council yesterday that even though there was progress, including the cessation of Sudanese air force attacks on the villages of Darfur, the atrocities in the camps continue. Sudanese men in uniform that were sent to protect the refugees continue to “loot and harass” them, he said, according to diplomats.

But his interim report was positive enough for several members of the 15-member Security Council to muster enough resistance to any attempt at sanctions against Khartoum. “There is not going to be sanctions at this time,” China’s deputy ambassador, Zhang Yis han, told the Sun.

Last month, the council passed a resolution allowing Khartoum 30 days to implement agreements meant to stop the Darfur carnage, threatening further actions, including sanctions, if it fails.

Such action depends on a Secretary-General Annan report, which will be based on the efforts of his special representative in the region, Jan Pronk. Mr. Pronk is expected to brief the council on his negotiations with the government on September 3.

While yesterday’s briefing was intermediate only, Russia’s ambassador, Andrey Denisov, said, “We note that the progress in Sudan is propelling in the right direction.”

China and Russia have been traditionally reluctant to impose sanctions, but in this case, Moscow has sold MiG jet fighters to Sudan and China has strong oil interests there. Last month, both were instrumental in a diplomatic effort to avoid mentioning the possibility of sanctions. Sudan has been also very successful in lobbying Muslim and Arab allies. “There is a growing recognition that sanctions are not going to be a productive approach,” Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan told the Sun.

And in a sign that Khartoum has already began lobbying allies to assist in its resistance to an African Union, he added, “The sensitivity of the Sudanese government would have to be taken into account. It’s a sovereign country.” Asked if he would support a mandate by the council for an African force, he said it would be “counterproductive.”