But prospects seemed dim at a time when Sudan has shown little willingness to compromise and launched an expansive military offensive against rebels in western Darfur region.

Efforts by African countries, the tiny Gulf state of Qatar and France to solve the crisis also have not yielded tangible results.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has asked judges to issue an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir on charges he carried out genocide in Darfur. Up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been chased from their homes in the region since fighting between goverment-backed janjaweed militia and rebels began in early 2003.

The court is expected to make its decision before the end of the year, and the Sudanese goverment has been lobbying African and Arab countries to support its attempts to evade al-Bashir’s prosecution.

The African Union has asked the U.N. Security Council to freeze the ICC case against al-Bashir, which can do so if it deems the prosecution as a threat to peace and security. While the Security Council took note of the request in July, it had said it would revisit it later.