United Nations, June 1 (AP): Sudan's UN ambassador accused President George W Bush of imposing new economic sanctions against his country for domestic political reasons and said Americans should feel "ashamed" because the government is making progress on peacekeeping, political, and humanitarian issues in Darfur.

In an interview yesterday with The Associated Press, Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said US sanctions "will cripple the humanitarian situation in Darfur" and elsewhere in the country, because they target railways, airplanes and other transportation links.

But he noted that when the US first imposed sanctions nearly 10 years ago, "we make miracles ... and we emerged as an oil exporting country because of their sanctions."

"Now maybe it is a blessing in disguise," Mohamad said. "We will prove to them that we are resilient and we will grow stronger than what they think. We will transform the challenges into opportunities."

In November 1997, the US imposed sanctions on Sudan for supporting international terrorism, destabilising neighbouring governments and human rights violations. It cut off about 130 Sudanese companies from the US banking system, forcing them to find ways to do business outside the sanctions framework.

Bush ordered new sanctions Tuesday to pressure Sudan's government to halt the bloodshed in Darfur that the administration has condemned as genocide.

More than 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in the four-year conflict between ethnic African rebels and pro-government janjaweed militia.