(Adds comments by U.N. official, paragraphs 12-13)

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS, April 18 (Reuters) - The Sudanese government is flying weapons and other military equipment into Darfur in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, a confidential U.N. report says.

The government was using planes painted white to make them them look like U.N. aircraft to bomb and carry out surveillance of villages in the violence-torn western region, said the report by a panel of five experts appointed by the world body.

The panel said it had seen one such aircraft, an Antonov AN-26, at an airport in Darfur and that it had the letters "UN" painted on its wing. It had also seen white helicopters operated by Sudan. The report was accompanied by photographs.

Sudan has denied the allegations.

The report has not so far been issued by the U.N. but was published on the Internet on Wednesday by the New York Times, which said it had received it from a diplomat of a country that wanted it publicized.

At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million made homeless since 2003 in ethnic and political conflict triggered by a rebellion in Darfur. Rebels are fighting government troops and Janjaweed militias.

"On the basis of evidence gathered, the panel concludes that the government of the Sudan continues to violate the (U.N.) arms embargo by transferring equipment and related weapons into Darfur," the 44-page report said.

"The panel believes that the use of white aircraft by the government of the Sudan constitutes a deliberate attempt to conceal the identity of these aircraft such that from a moderate distance they resemble United Nations" or African Union aircraft used in Darfur, it said.

SANCTIONS THREAT

The U.N. report also accused rebel groups of violating Security Council resolutions, peace agreements and humanitarian standards, and recommended extending the U.N. arms embargo from Darfur to the whole of Sudan.

A U.N. statement said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon viewed "with deep concern" the reported arms embargo violations.

"He is especially troubled by reports that private or national aircraft have been illegally provided with U.N. markings and used for military purposes," it said.

A senior U.N. official, briefing reporters on condition he was not identified, said white planes marked "UN" had been seen in Chad and Central African Republic as well as Darfur.

He said the U.N. was investigating whether there had been an "unacceptable" abuse of its markings, but was also checking whether the plane or planes could have come from Kazakhstan, whose aircraft codings contain those letters.

Aircraft from ex-Soviet states are in wide use in Africa.

An African Union peacekeeping force has been unable to stem the violence in Darfur and Western powers are pressing Sudan to allow a big U.N. force into the region, not just the 3,000 extra peacekeepers Khartoum has agreed to.

U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair threatened Sudan on Wednesday with stiffer sanctions unless it complied. Blair said talks would start on Thursday in New York on a new U.N. resolution.

But many Security Council members oppose fresh sanctions in the near future. Senior envoys from Russia, China and South Africa told reporters they did not believe the time was right after Sudan agreed this week to let in extra peacekeepers.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, current Council president, said when a resolution text had been completed "the judgment will be when do we put it down ... One of the questions on the timing is whether or not the resolution would prevail in the Council."

It could include an arms embargo on all Sudan, monitoring flights at Sudanese airports and adding names to a list of government, rebel and militia leaders subject to financial and travel bans. Companies and institutions might also be named.

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