"China expresses great concern and worry over the ICC prosecutor's accusation against the Sudanese leader," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.

The court's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday sought an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Moreno-Ocampo said Beshir "personally instructed" his forces to annihilate three ethnic groups in the western Sudanese region.

Sudan has already rejected the ICC prosecutor's efforts as damaging to Darfur peace hopes, and the African Union warned indicting Beshir would create a power vacuum that risked "military coups and widespread anarchy".

China, which has close ties with Sudan as one of the main buyers of the African nation's oil and a key investor in its economy, also warned the move might upset peace hopes in Darfur.

"Measures taken by the ICC should be conducive to maintaining the stability of the Sudanese situation, and to the proper resolution of the problems in Darfur, not the contrary," Liu said.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.

The United Nations has said that 300,000 people have died in Darfur and more than 2.2 million have been displaced since 2003. The Sudanese government puts the number of fatalities at 10,000.

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