SUDAN - June 1 - US Split On Ties.

US Secretary of State Powell is considering experienced diplomat Chester Crocker as his special envoy to Sudan. But IHT says Crocker wants assurances that he would not be insulated from conservative Christian views at the White House. (Conservative Christian advocates, who form an important part of Pres. Bush's political base, have taken a special interest in Sudan's civil war, urging Bush to back the SPLA-led Christian rebels in the south against Khartoum. At the forefront of this effort is the Reverend Franklin Graham, who delivered the prayer at Bush's inauguration. Both Powell and Crocker have a different position: that tilting too heavily towards the SPLA would only aggravate the three-decade conflict. During his visit to Africa last week, Powell said the US would deal with "all parties" to bring about a ceasefire in the south. In Kenya he avoided meeting with SPLA leader John Garang, whom Christians' advocates see as a major standard-bearer.

In a signal of evenhandedness, Powell urged Khartoum to stop bombing supplies donated to the south by international relief groups, declaring such attacks "reprehensible". On May 30 Crocker, a seasoned Africa hand who teaches at Georgetown University in Washington, said he had no comment on whether he would take the appointment until he spoke personally to Powell. But he has made it clear to associates that while he believes the time is ripe for solving the Sudan conflict, the administration must be unified and clear in how it wants to go about it. He has stressed that providing the southerners with even non-lethal assistance like vehicles and radios is not conductive to peace talks. The administration is in the process of providing $3m worth of such equipment to SPLA as a first step in what Christian advocates and some Republican senators hope will be a larger military commitment. Crocker was assistant secretary of state for African affairs during the Reagan administration. He made a name for himself running complicated negotiations over several years that resulted in the departure of Cuban troops from Angola and South African troops from Namibia. He also played a major role in the Reagan administration's support of Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the opposition to the Communist government in Angola.

Because of his background in Africa and his Republican credentials, Crocker was a natural for Gen. Powell to turn to, even though the secretary pledged he would not mimic the Clinton administration's habit of sending special envoys to troubled spots. Powell tried to head off having to appoint a special envoy to Sudan by asking Andrew Natsios, the administrator of the Agency for International Development, to deal especially with relief issues there, like food and medicine. But supporters of the southerners, who include lawmakers from the Congressional Black Caucus as well, have insisted that a diplomatic envoy be appointed in order to elevate the importance of the Sudan issue. The conflict has become a lightening rod for Christian advocates and for black lawmakers because of what they call the Sudan government's policy of allowing Christian black Sudanese to be abducted and sent into slavery in the Islamic north. The war also attracted attention because a hospital in southern Sudan run by Graham's group, Samaritan's Purse, has been bombed numerous times by the government. But foreign companies are finding more oil reserves in Sudan, with the country now producing 220,000 b/d of oil, and diplomats contend that this wealth can be used as a bargaining tool to end the war. So far, only the north has been benefited from the oil. The richest finds are believed to be in the south, which could induce the two sides to come to the bargaining table).