BEIJING, Feb 24 (Reuters) - China wants Sudan to eliminate obstacles blocking full deployment of the new U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur, Beijing's envoy said in Khartoum on Sunday, while also urging rebels to return to peace talks.

China's role in Sudan came under renewed international attention when film director Steven Spielberg recently quit as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, saying Beijing had failed to use enough of its sway with Khartoum to seek peace in Darfur.

China has often said negotiations, not sanctions, are needed to stop five years of fighting between Darfur rebels, the government and its allied militias.

But in a departure from Beijing's usual public diplomatic vaguery envoy Liu Guijin said Sudan should do more to end the bloodshed by cooperating more with a "hybrid" peacekeeping force backed by the United Nations and African Union.

"Rolling out the hybrid peacekeeping operation and resolving the Darfur issue require the joint efforts of all sides," Liu told his country's official Xinhua news agency during a visit to Sudan.

"First, the Sudan government should cooperate better with the international community and demonstrate greater flexibility on some technical issues. Next, anti-government organisations in the Darfur region should return to the negotiating table."

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes during years of conflict in Darfur. Sudan says the toll is a Western media fabrication. It says 9,000 people have been killed.

A hybrid United Nations-African Union force took over this year from 7,000 understaffed and badly equipped AU peacekeepers who have been unable to stem the violence.

The joint force, known as UNAMID, is supposed to number 26,000 troops and police but so far only 9,000 UNAMID forces are on the ground in Darfur. Their deployment has been stymied by conditions set by Khartoum and a lack of air support from international donors.

Beijing is a big investor in Sudan's oil and the largest supplier of weapons to Khartoum. International critics say with that strategic stake in the East African country and China's seat on the U.N. Security Council, it could do a lot more to help end fighting in Darfur.

Facing renewed pressure as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August, China has launched a diplomatic push to argue that it has in fact been crucial to recent promising developments in Darfur.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this week said his country had been important in securing cooperation between Sudan and international organisations, and had quickly sent its own peacekeeping troops and humanitarian aid for Darfur.

Envoy Liu has also been in London with the same message. His latest pointed comments suggest China wants to show the world it is working on Khartoum.

In Sudan, Liu also said Darfur rebels should immediately return to the negotiating table. Libya-hosted peace talks broke up last year without any progress after the main Darfur rebel leaders boycotted them.

"In the political process, several months have passed without substantive progress," Xinhua cited Liu as saying.

The envoy said Western countries "should use their own influence to work on all the sides", and he urged the U.N. and African Union to work more closely with Sudan to overcome disagreements over the hybrid peacekeeping operation. (Reporting by Chris Buckley, editing by Mary Gabriel)

AlertNet news is provided by