(Adds quotes from U.N., communique in paragraphs 5 & 10, edits)

By Salah Sarrar

TRIPOLI, April 29 (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday that Sudan was "falling in line" on accepting a major U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur and welcomed progress at weekend talks towards a political settlement to the conflict.

"There's enough international pressure now and enough support from (Sudan's) allies" for such a force, Andrew Natsios, Washington's special envoy on Darfur, told Reuters, citing Egypt and China in particular.

He said there was now a "broad international movement" behind the deployment of a mixed force of more than 20,000 U.N. and African Union peacekeepers and police in the western Sudanese region where four years of fighting have killed at least 200,000 people and displaced some 2.5 million.

"The Sudanese have been resisting it, but gradually on that front they've been falling in line," Natsios said after weekend talks in Libya involving the United Nations, African Union and more than a dozen countries including Sudan.

A joint statement after the talks urged all parties to "accelerate preparations for negotiations". And it warned them: "Those who obstruct the peace process in Darfur will have to bear the consequences."

These were not spelt out. But Washington, blaming Sudan for what it calls genocide in Darfur, has told Khartoum it has one last chance to avoid international sanctions by accepting the full combined U.N.-AU force.

Sudan has so far agreed to accept just 3,500 U.N. military and police personnel on top of an existing AU force of around 5,000, one of whose officers acknowledged last week that Arab militia in Darfur were killing and pillaging with impunity.

The conflict between rebels, government forces and the militia, known as Janjaweed, has triggered one of the world's most desperate humanitarian crises.

Natsios said the talks had deliberately steered clear of the peacekeeping issue and focused instead on delivering a plan for a political settlement under the umbrella of the AU and U.N.

Jan Eliasson, the special United Nations envoy for Sudan, told Reuters: "This conflict is very dangerous. It can get worse. Now it is a time to move. We are already at a crossroads and I think this meeting is a contribution to the way forward."

One of the key obstacles has been that the Darfur rebels themselves are split. A peace deal in May last year was signed by only one of three rebel factions.

Libya's Africa minister Ali Treiki said meetings of first the regional players -- Sudan, Libya, Chad and Eritrea -- and then the Sudanese factions which had not signed the peace deal should take place in Tripoli in the next three weeks.

It was not immediately clear how the rebel groups, which were absent from the weekend talks, would respond. (Additional reporting and writing by Mark Trevelyan)

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