THE United States has condemned the Sudanese Government’s decision to expel the head of the United Nations mission to the country and said that international action was needed to contain the worsening conflict.

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, described as “unfortunate in the extreme” the move to order Jan Pronk, the Dutch head, to leave.

The Sudanese Government said that it had expelled him for saying that its army had recently suffered defeats against rebels in Darfur. Khartoum, already at loggerheads with the international community over moves to send a 22,000-strong UN force to Darfur, was infuriated by comments made by Mr Pronk on his blog, janpronk.nl.

Mr Pronk left Khartoum yesterday and will arrive in New York tomorrow for talks with Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. A spokesman said last night that he had Mr Annan’s full support.

The decision to order Mr Pronk out of the country raises the stakes sharply in the long-running dispute with the world body over the crisis in the vast western province, where an estimated 200,000 have died and more than two million have been driven from their homes in 3½ years of government-supported mayhem.

Mr Pronk, 66, began a web- log after he was appointed the UN special representative to Sudan just over two years ago.

Although his main job was to monitor a separate peace accord that ended Africa’s longest war with rebels in the south of the country, Mr Pronk spent more and more time on the conflict in Darfur. His blog infuriated the Arab-dominated Government in Khartoum, which is accused of unleashing mounted militias, known as Janjawid, against villagers.

The Government has admitted recently that it suffered two military setbacks against a rebel force that refused to sign a peace deal in May.

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