FACTBOX: Highlights of new US draft on Sudan at UN

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 (Reuters) – The United States proposed on Monday a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on a peacekeeping force in southern Sudan and sanctions in Darfur. Following are highlights of the eight-page measure that may be voted on within two weeks.

— Establishes a U.N. Mission in Sudan, called UNMISUD, for an initial period of 6 months to help enforce a landmark peace agreement in southern Sudan that ended 21 years of civil war. The draft calls for 10,000 troops, 715 police and civilian personnel with a mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of violence.

— Asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to come up with options in 60 days on how to reinforce an African Union monitoring mission in Darfur.

— Sets up a special unit to make sure peacekeepers do not sexually exploit the local population as was the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

— Imposes a travel ban and financial assets on violators of a Darfur cease-fire and other violence as determined by a new Security Council committee, consisting of all 15 member nations. Exemptions are possible on religious grounds and for negotiating purposes.

— Widens an arms embargo in Darfur to include the Sudanese government and demands Khartoum refrain from conducting military flights in and out of Darfur unless the Security Council approves them in advance.

— Determines that perpetrators of crimes and atrocities identified in a sealed list by a U.N. inquiry commission be brought to justice by “internationally accepted means.”

Council members are still debating where the trials will be held, with the United States wanting a court in Tanzania and at least nine other council members preferring the International Criminal Court that Washington opposes. The resolution may be adopted without naming the specific court.

— Establishes within a month from the date of the resolution’s adoption, a panel of four experts, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and El Fasher in Darfur, to assist the Security Council and make recommendations on future action.

— Threatens to consider an oil embargo if the situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate.

— Urges parties to the North-South agreement, including former rebels, to “play an active role” in the Darfur talks in Abuja, Nigeria.