China, under international pressure to help end conflict in Darfur, made a rare call on its Sudanese ally today to do more to allow foreign peacekeepers to deploy to the region.
But there was no respite in the fighting and the United Nations said it feared for thousands of civilians after reports that Sudan's forces bombed a rebel-held area in western Darfur.
China's envoy to Darfur, in a departure from Beijing's usual public diplomatic vagueness, made an unusual rebuke to Khartoum during a visit there and urged Sudan to remove obstacles to full deployment of a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force.
"Rolling out the hybrid peacekeeping operation and resolving the Darfur issue require the joint efforts of all sides," Liu Guijin told China's official Xinhua news agency.
"First, the Sudan government should cooperate better with the international community and demonstrate greater flexibility on some technical issues. Next, anti-government organisations in the Darfur region should return to the negotiating table."
China's role in Sudan has come under renewed attention since film director Steven Spielberg quit as an artistic director to the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, saying China had failed to use its sway in Khartoum to seek peace in Darfur.
China is a big investor in Sudan's oil industry and is its largest weapons supplier.
International experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven been from their homes since mostly non-Arab Darfur rebels took up arms five years ago.