UNITED NATIONS: More than 180,000 people have died in Sudan's conflict stricken Darfur region over the past 18 months, UN humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland said Monday.

The growing toll was announced as the UN struggles to find ways to end the violence in the western Sudanese region where almost two million people have been displaced.

"It has been at least 10,000, on average, of preventable deaths since the emergency became a big emergency, which was toward the end of 2003," said the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs.

"If you say for the last 18 months, 10,000 a month, that's 180,000," he added.

"It could be just as well more than 200,000 (dead) but I think 10,000 a month is a reasonable figure," said Egeland who emphasized that the toll does not included those killed in the fighting between the local black population and government-backed militias.

The United Nations had previously estimated about 70,000 dead from the fighting, disease and malnutrition linked to the Darfur conflict. But Egeland said last week that the figure was obsolete.

The UN official emphasized however that the toll has improved in recent months. "Mortality has decreased in recent months because of effective relief work," he said. More camps have been built and other international relief efforts have been stepped up over the past year.

Egeland said the violence was continuing in Darfur outside of refugee camps and that unless stabilization efforts were increased the number of people forced out of their homes could rise to three or four million.

After rebels in Darfur rose up against Sudan's Arab-led government, Khartoum turned to proxy militias - the Janjaweed - to put down the rebellion and those militias have been blamed for a scorched-earth campaign of murder, rape and pillage.

Peace talks between the government and the Darfur rebels are at a standstill.

The United Nations Security Council has passed several resolutions ordering Sudan to rein-in the Janjaweed and improve security in Darfur. These have had little effect, however, and the Security Council is now struggling to find ways to give new urgency to international efforts to help the Darfur population.

The Sudanese government on Monday rejected international pressure at a meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. "Unmeasured, uneven and unbalanced pressure and signals have exacerbated the already volatile situation in Darfur," Sudan's Justice Minister Ali Yassine said.

"Any undue pressure on the government of national unity will retard its ability to implement the comprehensive peace agreement," he said.

The UN Security Council has been at odds for weeks over questions relating to the Darfur region, where an independent commission found crimes against humanity were likely committed.

The U.S. has been unable to drum up wide support for targeted sanctions against those responsible for the crimes - or for its opposition to referring the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The U.S., which does not recognize the ICC, has called for a special tribunal to be set up in Tanzania, but that proposal has been largely rejected by other council members. - AFP