Any hopes raised by the agreement four months ago to end Sudan's Darfur conflict have fizzled out. Security in the region has only deteriorated. The Sudanese government, which signed the peace deal with one faction of the main rebel movement, has been pouring reinforcements into northern Darfur, apparently under the illusion that it can impose a military solution. Hundreds of thousands of non-combatants have been cut off from relief supplies. The 7,000-strong monitoring mission from the African Union is out of its depth, hard put even to protect itself.

Today the AU's peace and security council, meeting in New York before tomorrow's opening of the United Nations General Assembly session, has to decide where to go from here. The mission's mandate expires at the end of the month. Both the AU and the UN want to transform it into a bigger, better-equipped UN operation with more than 20,000 soldiers and police and a tougher mandate. The leaders of Khartoum's dominant National Congress party have dug their heels in, arguing that this would violate Sudan's sovereignty, but probably more fearful that UN troops would start pursuing senior officials to face war crimes allegations at the International Criminal Court.