U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday that his government is beefing up its sanctions against Sudan although Khartoum has agreed to a joint African Union-UN force to end bloodshed in Darfur.

"The Department of Treasury is tightening existing economic sanctions against Sudan, and we're imposing additional ones," Bush said by satellite to the U.S. Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting.

In addition, Bush said, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "is working with our allies to draft a new UN Security Council resolution that will seek to impose new sanctions, expand an arms embargo, and prohibit Sudan's government from conducting offensive military flights over Darfur."

Bush made the remarks after Sudan, the African Union, the United Nations issued a joint statement Tuesday, saying Sudan had accepted the deployment of the hybrid AU-UN force for Darfur.

The AU, the United Nations and Sudanese officials started a closed-door consultative meeting in Addis Ababa Monday to discuss the deployment of a hybrid force of between 17,000 to 19,000 troops in Darfur.

Source: Xinhua