By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (Reuters) - Russia's U.N. ambassador on Tuesday backed Sudan's calls for U.N. sanctions against rebel groups in its war-wracked West Darfur region which Khartoum blames for the continued violence there.

After the Security Council heard a bleak U.N. report on Darfur, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it was time to punish rebel groups with sanctions for not complying with a ceasefire agreement.

But U.S. and British envoys said that any new round of sanctions should target both Sudan's government and the rebels, since both were responsible for the violence.

"The Russian delegation was the only delegation that raised the need of finally contemplating sanctions against the rebel groups who are challenging the peace process and who are refusing to abide by the ceasefire," Churkin said.

This is something that Khartoum has demanded.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced to flee homes in Darfur since conflict erupted in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central government. The government of Sudan has mobilized mainly Arab militias to quell the revolt.

U.N. deputy peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet addressed the Security Council about Darfur. While he had little new information, he painted what several envoys described as a bleak and depressing picture of the situation in Darfur.

"The continued hostilities in Darfur serve as a stark reminder that urgent international engagement and concrete action is necessary to encourage and pressure the parties to the conflict to lay down their weapons and commit to the path of dialogue," Mulet said.

He also repeated that African Union-U.N. peacekeepers urgently needed helicopters in Darfur. So far, only Ethiopia has pledged four acceptable choppers, Mulet said.

'REALLY DEPRESSING'

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the rebels and government shared responsibility for violence against civilians in Darfur, so any new sanctions would have to target both.

British Ambassador John Sawers said Mulet's briefing was "really depressing." He agreed that the rebels and Khartoum shared the blame for the lack of progress toward peace.

"All parties have got responsibilities for the lack of progress on the ground, so if there's going to be a further round of sanctions it would have to be a balanced package," Sawers said.

On a positive note, Mulet told the council of a tentative agreement with Sudan that would allow Thai and Nepali troops to join African Union-U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.

However, he said the Asian troops would deploy after Egyptian and Ethiopian troops had arrived in Darfur.

The United Nations and African Union aim to have some 26,000 troops in Darfur, but only 9,000 are on the ground. Western governments say Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir delaying deployment by putting restrictions on the troops.

Khalilzad said it was positive that Khartoum's had agreed to allow the roughly 1,600 Nepali and Thai troops into Darfur but was skeptical about how long it would take to deploy them.

"We can't be sure of anything until it really happens," he said.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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