By Alaa Shahine

EL-GENEINA, Sudan, April 24 (Reuters) - Even a force of 100,000 peacekeepers could not secure peace in Sudan's Darfur region, the head of the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

"No security force will be able to guarantee security in the whole of Darfur. Darfur is very big," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told a gathering of displaced people at a camp in el-Geneina in West Darfur state.

"Even if you have 100,000 policemen in Darfur, they will not be able to cover the whole territory."

On Monday several international aid agencies decided to halt temporarily their humanitarian work in the town of Um Dukhun in Darfur because of attacks.

Later Guterres said: "I want to stress that there needs to be a political solution first. Of course we need peacekeepers, but peacekeepers can do only so much if there is no peace."

The United Nations says about 200,000 people have been killed in the vast western region of Darfur since 2003 when rebels took up arms against the Khartoum government, charging it with neglect. Sudan says only 9,000 have died.

U.S. President George W. Bush warned Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last week he had one last chance to stop violence in Darfur or the United States would impose sanctions and consider other punitive options.

Sudan recently agreed to a "heavy support package" for the African Union peacekeeping troops in Darfur that includes some 3,500 military and police personnel.

Khartoum has not approved a "hybrid" U.N.-AU force of more than 20,000 troops and police, which the Security Council first authorised in August.

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