THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP):

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant yesterday for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court has ordered arrested.

The three-judge panel said there was insufficient evidence to support charges of genocide in a war in which up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes.

Al-Bashir's government denounced the warrant as part of a Western conspiracy aimed at destabilising the vast oil-rich nation south of Egypt.

African and Arab nations fear the warrant will destabilise the whole region, bring even more conflict in Darfur and threaten the fragile peace deal that ended decades of civil war between northern and southern Sudan. China, which buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil, supports the African and Arab positions.

Some African nations reportedly threatened to pull out of the court in retaliation for the warrant. Thirty African countries are among the court's 108 member states.

In a show of defiance on Tuesday, in anticipation of the decision, al-Bashir told supporters at a rally "We are telling them to immerse it in water and drink it", a common Arabic insult meant to show extreme disrespect.

Hundreds of Sudanese waving pictures of the president and denouncing the court quickly turned out in a rally at the Cabinet building in Khartoum. Security was increased around many embassies and some diplomats and aid workers stayed home amid fears of retaliation against Westerners.

Maximum sentence

"He is suspected of being criminally responsible ... for intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property," court spokeswoman Laurence Blairon said. If al-Bashir is brought to trial and prosecuted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The United Nations (UN), which has a joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur with the African Union, will continue to deal with al-Bashir, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said at UN headquarters in New York.

"President al-Bashir is the head of state of Sudan, and United Nations officials will continue to deal with president al-Bashir when they need to do so," Montas said.

Blairon rejected accusations that the warrant was part of a political plot and said the decision was made purely on legal grounds.

Al-Bashir denies the war-crimes accusations and refuses to deal with the court, and there is currently no international mechanism to arrest him. The main tool the court has is diplomatic pressure for countries to hand over suspects.

The United States is not a member of the international court, but in Washington, the State Department called on all parties to the Darfur conflict to exercise restraint and cooperate with the decision, which it said could be helpful in ending the violence.