US sanctions remain in place

The US said on Friday that it would continue to impose restrictions on Sudan despite the UN Security Council's decision on Friday to lift its five year-old sanctions, news agencies reported. "The United States continues to maintain its bilateral sanctions against Sudan," AFP quoted US State Department spokesman Ari Fleischer as saying. Following Friday's Security Council decision, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said he would now seek to persuade the US to lift its sanctions against Sudan and play an active role in ending the country's 18-year civil war. "The Sudan will now seek, through diplomatic means, to regain its rights with the regional and international institutions and to have the remaining unilateral and multilateral sanctions removed," he was quoted as saying by AFP. The US abstained in Friday's Security Council vote lifting the sanctions, making it the only member of the 15-member Council not to vote in favour. Unlike the recently lifted UN sanctions, which were largely symbolic, US economic sanctions prevent any business dealings between the US and Sudan, the BBC said. Although Washington says the Khartoum government has been cooperating with intensified US efforts to combat terrorism following the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, Sudan remains on a list of seven countries the US accuses of sponsoring terrorism. "They've provided information on the past doings of terrorist groups in Sudan, they've recently apprehended extremists who might threaten people there," the BBC quoted US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher as saying. Boucher added, however, that Sudan still needed to do more before sanctions were lifted, and said Washington would continue to "work with Sudan and pressure Sudan to take those kinds of steps".