The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is to unveil the latest charges from his investigation into war crimes in Darfur.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo is expected to seek an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

It would be the first such indictment against a serving head of state.

The judges at the ICC will take at least six weeks to decide whether the prosecutor has a case.

Sudan's government does not recognise the ICC. It has labelled Mr Moreno-Ocampo a criminal, and warned that any indictment could stall peace talks.

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan, at the Hague in Holland, says that while some will welcome this move as a victory for justice, others fear it will undermine the peace process in Darfur and spark further violence in Sudan.

Alert raised

On Sunday thousands of people rallied in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, in support of President Bashir and denouncing the anticipated charges.

The demonstrators gathered outside an office where Mr Bashir was chairing an emergency meeting.

Thousands of UN and AU peacekeepers are deployed in Darfur and a spokeswoman for the force has said the security alert for its staff has been raised.

The joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (Unamid), which has 9,000 troops in Darfur, has been struggling to contain the violence there.

It has raised the security alert for its staff to "level four", which stops short of evacuating all staff, but relocates foreign workers who are not directly involved in relief or security operations.

UN officials fear that anti-government groups in the south and the west will be emboldened if they perceive President Bashir as weakened.

The Janjaweed Arab militia has been accused of ethnic cleansing and genocide against black African civilians, after rebel groups took up arms in Darfur in 2003.

The UN estimates that some 300,000 people have died as a result of of the conflict. More than two million people have fled their villages.

The Khartoum authorities have been accused of supporting the campaign and protecting those responsible for atrocities. The government denies this.

The ICC was set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court.


Source: BBC