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El-FASHER, Sudan, March 24 (Reuters) - U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes, on his first visit to Darfur, said he was barred on Saturday from visiting a camp for people displaced by the violence in western Sudan.

Holmes told Reuters a military guard at the Kassad Camp in Kutum, north Darfur, had blocked him from entering and the decision was supported by the guard's commander.

"I am frustrated and angry. I find this extraordinary but it illustrates the difficulties we are facing," he said on his return to the regional capital El-Fasher.

He said his team had received advance permission to visit the camp and the Khartoum government had been notified over the incident, which ended with a guard seizing a tape from a U.N. camerman as they prepared to leave.

Last year Sudan hindered a visit to a refugee camp by Holmes' predecessor, Jan Egeland, who was instrumental in bringing the Darfur crisis to the attention of the U.N. Security Council in 2004.

Sudan now faces pressure for new international sanctions over its Darfur policy, especially from the United States and Britain.

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