(Adds quotes from Sudan, French envoys; paragraphs 10-11, 13)

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Sudan's U.N. envoy said on Thursday the fault for any delays in deploying peacekeepers to the country's war-ravaged Darfur region lies with the United Nations and not the Khartoum government.

The new head of U.N. peacekeeping operations, Alain Le Roy of France, told reporters on Wednesday he did not expect the United Nations to meet its target of getting 80 percent of the planned full deployment of 26,000 U.N.-African Union peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur by the end of the year.

The delayed arrival of Thai and Nepalese units was caused by a "lack of clarity" on the part of the Sudanese authorities, he said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said the target would not be reached until March 2009.

Sudan's Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem rejected the idea that Khartoum was at all responsible for delays in deploying the joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping mission (UNAMID).

He said his government was doing everything in its power to ensure that the U.N. target was met. Le Roy said he expected that only half of the 26,000 UNAMID peacekeepers would be on the ground in Darfur by the end of the year.

"If there are delays, it's because of the United Nations," Abdalhaleem told Reuters, adding that he hoped Le Roy would create better ties with Sudan than his predecessor.

Abdalhaleem said Le Roy's predecessor, Jean-Marie Guehenno of France, was "confrontational" and "did not seek the cooperation of the government of Sudan."

U.N. officials acknowledge that obstacles created by Khartoum are not the only reason for the deployment delays. Other reasons include the logistics of deployment, the vast length of supply lines for an area roughly the size of France and increased banditry and worsening security.

But they rejected the idea that Khartoum was doing everything possible to get UNAMID force deployed.

"GATES OF HELL"

Abdalhaleem said Khartoum wanted peace in Darfur. But he said peace there would be impossible if the U.N. Security Council does not prevent the International Criminal Court from indicting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for possible war crimes committed in Darfur.

"Indictment and peace do not go together," he said. If the council does not act, it will "open the gates of hell in Sudan and the rest of the region."

French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said on Wednesday that Paris might be open to the idea of the council using its power to freeze any ICC action against Bashir provided specific conditions were met, including an end to the killings in Darfur and action on bringing suspected war criminals to justice.

But he said no country had formally circulated any such proposals. "We will oppose for the moment any kind -- any kind -- of request for (a suspension)," he said.

In July chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court's judges to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir.

Moreno-Ocampo accused the Sudanese leader of launching a campaign of genocide in 2003 that has killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through starvation and disease and forced 2.5 million from their homes.

The African Union, Arab League and other alliances have urged the Security Council to block any moves to indict Bashir to avoid shattering the fragile peace process in Darfur. (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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