WASHINGTON: China's economic alliance with Sudan has not prevented Beijing from exerting pressure on the Khartoum government to accept deployment of peacekeepers in violent Darfur, a top United Nations diplomat said Thursday night.

China, said Jan Eliasson, special U.N. envoy for Darfur, "does not want to be seen stopping progress in Darfur."

Eliasson said it was Chinese pressure that helped persuade Sudanese officials to lift their opposition to the deployment of 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur. These forces would pave the way for an additional 17,000 peacekeepers, who would protect the 2.5 million Darfurians confined to camps and ensure safe delivery of humanitarian supplies.

Eliasson spoke at the Atlantic Council, a group that promotes close U.S.-European ties.

At least 200,000 Darfurians have died during more than four years of conflict. The Bush administration has classified the violence there as genocide.

An African Union military-civilian deployment of 7,000 in Darfur is regarded as too small and ill-equipped to pacify the region, which is larger than France.

China has been widely criticized for the friendship it has shown toward Sudan, a major supplier of oil to China. Nowadays, however, Beijing may be worried that it could be made the scapegoat if conditions in Darfur continue deteriorating, a situation that could sully China's reputation as it prepares to host the 2008 summer Olympics, Eliasson said.

"They see danger if the situation (in Darfur) persists, and China gets the blame," he added.

Eliasson, who returned recently from a visit to Darfur, said it is important for rebel groups in Darfur to coordinate their positions so that they present a united front if serious negotiations with the government and government-backed militias resume.

At present, he said, there is no more important task than to resume negotiations. One positive sign, he said, is there is general agreement among Darfur's multiple rebel groups on the shape of a final settlement: compensation for long years of death and destruction and a sharing of power and wealth.

At times, Eliasson sounded optimistic about Darfur's future but he tempered that impression at one point by saying, "If anything can go wrong in Sudan, it usually does."

President George W. Bush, impatient with perceived foot-dragging by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, warned a month ago that he would tighten economic sanctions and impose new ones unless al-Bashir started making definite moves toward peace. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had urged Bush to give diplomatic processes more time before applying sanctions.

Eliasson sidestepped direct questions about the wisdom of any U.S. move to further squeeze Sudan but left the impression that such action could prompt al-Bashir to dig in his heels.

The day after Bush issued his warning, Sudanese warplanes bombed suspected rebel targets in Darfur after a pause of more than two months.