"If need be, we will be able to go to Sudan," Jackson said in an interview with BBC News 24. "I suspect we could put a brigade together very quickly indeed."

Asked how many troops that would entail, he replied: "Five thousand."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair denied as "premature" on Thursday a report that he had drawn up plans to send British troops to the troubled western region of Sudan.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail responded to the report in London's Guardian newspaper by saying that Khartoum would withdraw government troops from the region if Britain sent forces in.

More than 10,000 people have died in Darfur with more than a million driven from their homes since a revolt against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum broke out among indigenous ethnic minorities in February 2003.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is to visit Sudan next month to discuss the worsening situation.

WAR.WIRE