Fears were mounting Friday of a new humanitarian disaster in Darfur after Sudan ordered the expulsion of aid agencies, with the UN warning that thousands of lives were at risk. The grim assessment came as Sudan said it would not alter its policies in the wake of the International Criminal Court decision to seek the arrest of President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"If the government does not reconsider its position, with the departure of the NGOs 1.1 million people will be without food, 1.5 million people will be without health care and more than one million without drinking water," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the United Nations humanitarian coordinator's office.

A spokeswoman for a medical relief group which Khartoum ordered out of Darfur warned that vital medicines were running out in the region, where two refugee camps face meningitis epidemics.

"There is enough medicine for one month. After that it will be a catastrophe," said Zana Coulibaly, Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman.

Bashir is due in Darfur Sunday on a trip seen as a show of defiance to the ICC, which accuses him of orchestrating a campaign of extermination, rape, forcible displacement, torture and pillaging over the six-year conflict.

"The ICC will not change anything in the government's plans and programs," Bashir said Thursday. "The government will press ahead with all steps for peace ... and will conduct free and fair elections."

Sudan reacted to the warrant by ordering the expulsion of 13 international aid agencies it accuses of collaborating with the ICC.

The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have all issued urgent calls for Khartoum's decision to be revoked.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, indicated that the commissioner's office would examine whether the deprivation of aid in a conflict area might constitute violations of international law or war crimes.

The UN says 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million made homeless by the conflict which erupted in February 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime for a greater share of resources and power, triggering a scorched-earth campaign by Sudanese forces and allied militias known as Janjaweed.

The warrant against Bashir - the ICC's first against a sitting president - has deeply divided the international community.

Washington, which has said genocide was being committed in Darfur, is leading calls for Bashir to face international justice but Sudan's allies including Africa, the Arab world and China want the warrant suspended.

"The United States condemns the expulsions of international humanitarian organizations from Sudan by the government of Sudan," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said on Friday.

Their forced departure "immediately and seriously threatens the lives and well being" of millions of displaced people, Duguid added.

The Security Council was set to meet behind closed doors on Friday to discuss the situation in Sudan, diplomats said.

Western countries wanted to discuss the humanitarian situation while Libya, which holds the council's presidency this month, convened the meeting to air concerns about the impact of the ICC warrant on the peace process, they said.

The African Union plans to send a delegation to the United Nations to try to halt the warrant "to give a chance for peace in Sudan."

It was not immediately clear how many of the expelled agencies were still operating, but several reported the government seizing their belongings.

"We have appealed, and are still hoping that the government may change its mind," Oxfam spokesman Alun McDonald said, adding, however, that it has pulled international staff back to Khartoum from east Sudan and Darfur.

A delegation of 52 representatives from Organization of the Islamic Conference arrived in Khartoum on Friday in a show of support for Bashir.

The delegation included Syrian Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash, Iranian Speaker Ali Larijani, the number two leader of Hamas' Damascus-based leadership Moussa Abu Marzouk and Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah.

Despite the warrant, Sudanese officials say that Bashir will fly to Doha for an Arab League summit at the end of the month. Qatar is not a signatory to the ICC.

Khartoum and the Justice and Equality Movement, the most active Darfur rebel group, signed a confidence-building pact in Doha last month designed to lay the groundwork for broader peace talks.

Darfur rebel chief Abdel-Wahid Mohammad Nur, who heads the Sudan Liberation Movement, urged world powers Friday to uphold the ICC warrant. - With The Daily Star