China appoints special envoy for Darfur

China has been widely accused of not doing enough on Darfur, given that it buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports and sells the Khartoum regime weapons and military aircraft.

As a veto-holding permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has blocked efforts to send peacekeepers to Darfur without Sudan's consent.

But faced with intensifying criticism, Beijing has been trying to demonstrate it is willing to help while not overly embarrassing or alienating Sudan's leadership.

In the latest step, Jiang Yu, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Liu Guijin, a former ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa, had been appointed to the newly created post of special representative on African affairs and will focus on Darfur.

A letter to President Hu Jintao from 108 US House members Wednesday suggested that unless China changed its approach on Sudan, the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing could become a disaster for the Chinese rather than the image enhancer the government is expecting.

French politicians floated the idea of a boycott during their recent presidential race, and actress Mia Farrow has called on corporate sponsors of the Olympic Games to pressure China to do more on Darfur.

China has bristled at the attempts to link the Olympics to Darfur, but analysts said the threat got Beijing's attention.

"This Olympic issue has got them moving," said Francis Kornegay, an analyst at the Center for Policy Studies in Johannesburg . "They definitely don't want a global or even halfway successful boycott of the Olympics. They can't take that too lightly, which they aren't."

The letter from US lawmakers said that "unless China does its part to ensure that the government of Sudan accepts the best and most reasonable path to peace, history will judge your government as having bankrolled a genocide."

Jiang, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, did not respond directly when asked to comment on the letter.

"We hope to solve the issue by political means," she said. "We are ready to make joint efforts with the international community, including the US."