By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, April 1 (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has received an invitation to attend a summit meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York later this month, Sudan's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

Several Western diplomats said the invitation to Bashir, who they said has been dragging his feet in agreeing to the full deployment of 26,000 U.N.-African Union peacekeepers in Sudan's war-wracked Darfur region, came as a surprise to them.

Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem told Reuters: "There was an invitation sent to a few countries that have their agendas on the Security Council like Sudan, and our president is invited."

"So far the capital is studying this very kind invitation from South Africa," he said, adding that Khartoum would make a decision in the coming days on whether Bashir would attend.

South Africa took over the month-long presidency of the Security Council from Russia on Tuesday.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court has charged two Sudanese men -- the country's Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmad Harun and former Janjaweed commander Ali Kushayb -- with war crimes for their actions in the conflict in Sudan's Western Darfur region. Sudan has refused to hand them over.

Around 2.5 million people have fled their homes during the five year war in Sudan's west. International experts estimate some 200,000 have died from famine, disease or fighting in Darfur, violence the United States calls genocide.

Khartoum denies that genocide has occurred in Darfur and puts the death toll at 9,000.

Bashir has not been charged with war crimes over Darfur, but Western diplomats said his presence at the U.N. headquarters in New York would likely spark protests by non-governmental organizations monitoring the Darfur conflict.

A spokesman for South Africa's mission to the United Nations said the Security Council summit meeting on April 17 would be presided over by his country's President Thabo Mbeki.

He said the leaders of the other 14 council member states had also been invited, along with the leaders of other African countries currently on the agenda of the Security Council. It was not immediately clear whether Bashir and others would address the council in an open session or behind closed doors.

The point of the meeting is to discuss ways of improving cooperation between the Security Council and regional organizations, in this case the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, the South African spokesman said.

Apart from Sudan, African countries on the agenda of the Security Council include Chad, Ivory Coast, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The spokesman said it was too early to say how many other leaders would attend. (Editing by Philip Barbara)

AlertNet news is provided by