"There is no fundamental difference between China and Western countries. China is ready to cooperate sincerely, and is not looking for confrontation with the West" on Darfur, Liu Giujin told reporters in Paris.

As Sudan's main overseas supporter and a key arms supplier, China has come under growing pressure to use its influence on the east African regime to end the six-year old conflict in the western region.

Liu, who was in Paris after travelling to Darfur and neighbouring Chad late last month, said China shared "the same objective" as Western nations, but that its approach was "not the same".

"China is opposed to the arbitrary use of sanctions and an embargo that only worsens the situation," he said.

Western powers including Britain, France and the United States have backed the idea of sanctions against Khartoum for resisting the full deployment of a joint AU-UN mission to keep the fragile peace in Darfur.

"China wants to exert a positive influence over (the Sudanese government). What we want is for the crisis to be solved as quickly as possible through dialogue and negotiation, not by force," Liu said.

He said foreign states must build a dialogue of equals with the "legitimate" government in Khartoum, "whether or not we approve of it".

"We must talk to it as an equal, as a partner, to create a minimum of trust. We must ask it what approach best suits its interests," he said.

Liu repeated a call for Western powers to use their "important influence over rebel groups" in Darfur, and "speak with a single voice" to bring them back to the negotiating table.

One of the main rebel leaders from Darfur, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, whose Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) spearheaded a 2003 uprising at the start of the current spiral of violence, lives in exile in Paris.

The Darfur conflict, which the United Nations says has claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 people and displaced 2.2 million, has raged since 2003 when rebel groups demanded a greater share of the country's resources.

Pressure for China to use its influence on Khartoum has mounted ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

Hollywood film-maker Steven Spielberg resigned last month as artistic consultant for the Games over the conflict, which the United States describes as the first genocide of the 21st century.

Nobel Prize winners and Olympic athletes have also written to Chinese President Hu Jintao, asking him to put pressure on Sudan over Darfur.

Liu argued that it was "unfair" to insist on China's responsibility as arms supplier to Khartoum, saying it was one of seven weapons suppliers to the regime, and accounted for eight percent of its imports.

"In addition, Sudan is Africa's third arms producer behind Egypt and South Africa, and is self-sufficient in conventional arms and ammunition," Liu said.

"The country will always find a way to obtain arms. It is unfair to accuse China."

earlier related report
Russia to send helicopters to forces in Chad, Darfur
Russia will furnish sorely needed helicopters to the European Union's mission in Chad as well as to joint forces of the African Union and United Nations in Darfur, Russia's UN envoy said Wednesday.

"Russia has excellent helicopters, which can be used in desert conditions," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.

"We intend to cooperate with the European Union mission in Chad, sending our helicopters and our crews with those helicopters," he said.

"As to Darfur, there have been some discussions," Churkin said, "so the most likely scenario in the use of Russian helicopters would be Russia supplying the helicopters with crews from other countries."

The 14-nation EU mission in Chad, known as EUFOR mission, began deploying 3,700 troops to Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) last month after a delay caused by a rebel assault on the Chadian capital Ndjamena.

So far some 700 have been deployed as the force, mostly comprised of French troops, builds up its strength.

EUFOR is charged with beefing up security in Chad for a UN police mission as well as for more than 200,000 refugees from Sudan's strife-wracked Darfur region and people internally displaced by rebel insurgency in Chad and the northern CAR.

The diplomat said the numbers of choppers to be sent to the hotspots "are not large, so we're talking about several helicopters." He did not say how many nor did he provide details on whether they were tactical or transport aircraft.

The joint AU-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur is to total 26,000 members protecting the civilian population of a region the size of France and which has been beset by civil war between ethnic minority rebels and the Arab-dominated government.

For the time-being however, the force is just 9,000 strong.

To best fulfill their its mission the force has been in dire need of tactical and transport helicopters, but has had a hard time procuring aircraft from countries participating in the efforts.

Since the conflict broke out in February 2003, at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million have fled their homes after ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Sudan's regime, according to the United Nations.

The Sudanese government maintains that 9,000 have been killed.

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