Sudan has dismissed Western threats to use sanctions and no-fly zones to pressure the country into accepting United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur.
But a Sudanese politician said Khartoum may permit UN peacekeepers to patrol Darfur in exchange for immunity from prosecution for officials charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million people displaced in nearly four years of fighting in Darfur, in western Sudan.
The government opposes a UN Security Council plan to replace an overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping mission of 7,000 troops with 20,000 UN peacekeepers.
The government has often been accused of breaking UN Security Council resolutions by using warplanes to bomb targets in Darfur and killing civilians.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said this week he would favour enforcing a no-fly zone over Darfur, similar to those imposed on northern and southern Iraq during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
It is not clear how they could be maintained over Darfur, located in the centre of the African continent, far from US bases and aircraft carriers.
A member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement that fought the government until 2005 said the government had asked his group to broker a deal in which UN peacekeepers would be allowed in Darfur in exchange for immunity from prosecution for war crimes.
The politician said Khartoum opposes UN peacekeepers because it fears their deployment will make it easier to prosecute those indicted by the international court.
AP