Annan, with less than three weeks left in office, is still troubling over the conflict so much that he issued an unusually long and detailed statement Thursday through his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, expressing the conflict's spread to neighboring Chad to the west and the Central African Republic to the southwest.

"He is alarmed by the devastating impact the violence is having on the civilian population in the region, and strongly condemns the recent attacks and destruction of dozens of villages in North Darfur," the statement said.

More than 80,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the last six weeks, 50,000 of them in Darfur and 30,000 in Chad, Dujarric said. Several hundred civilians, including women, children and elderly, have been killed and there are very disturbing reports of mass rapes and other gross violations of human rights.

"The secretary-general also deplores the fact that the escalating violence is cutting off almost one million people across Darfur from desperately needed humanitarian relief," the spokesman said.

"Recent clashes between armed militia and ... elements in El Fasher have forced the relocation of United Nations and non-governmental organization staff and are threatening relief operations for more than 1.3 million people across North Darfur."

The fighting has also interrupted U.N. support to the African Union Mission in Sudan, Dujarric said.

Violence in Chad is disrupting relief operations to more than 300,000 people, he said. "In both Darfur and Chad, relief workers are being attacked on a daily basis, and dozens of their vehicles have been hijacked in the last few weeks, threatening the humanitarian lifeline for a total of 4.3 million people in the region."

All the violence on Sudan's western flank was separate from the previous weekend's spate of killings in southern Sudan.

Asked by reporters at U.N. World Headquarters in New York about failing to protect the victims, the secretary-general went beyond the statement and said, "I think the question here is, 'Who has failed?'

"I think the responsibility to protect the citizens is the responsibility of the government in Khartoum," he said in one of his strongest indictments of the Sudanese leaders. "The government patently has not been able to do that, given all the difficulties we see in Darfur -- the killings, the rape, the destruction -- and the international community has offered to go in to help them, but the government has refused to accept that help.

"The failure of the government to accept that help is also, as I have said, placing the government in a very difficult situation," Annan continued. "In time they may have to answer collectively and individually for what is happening in Darfur.

"I think, in this situation, the international community has been prepared to go in; the difficulty has been with the government, and I think we should be clear where the failure lies, where the difficulties lie," he said.

"The secretary-general appeals to all parties in the strongest terms to immediately cease hostilities and stop all attacks against civilians," said Dujarric in the statement. "Those violating international humanitarian law by attacking civilians and relief workers must be held accountable."

The spokesman said Annan further called upon the government of Sudan to re-establish law and order in the areas under its control, especially El Fasher and El Geneina in North Darfur, and called on all parties to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access to all those in need.

Additionally, the secretary-general called on the government to engage all groups and provide opportunities for grievances and aspirations to be addressed through political discussion.

The United Nations and the African Union said they were ready to provide co-mediation and to extend "all necessary support to the urgently needed Darfur-Darfur dialogue and consultation."

But Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir saw it another way.

Reports out of Khartoum Friday said Bashir complained the rebels were to blame and the international community was ignoring rebel activity.

Bashir has rejected not only U.N. peacekeepers, but even a hybrid U.N.-AU force, although he is accepting U.N. logistical and financial support to AMIS.

More than 200,000 people have died as a result of the conflict since government troops and allied militia began fighting with rebel groups in Darfur in 2003. At least two million others have been displaced.

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