Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, attaches as little value to the promises he makes to the international community as he does to the lives of the many thousands of people who are being murdered in Darfur. A newly disclosed UN report highlights his brazen duplicity, describing how the Sudanese government painted false UN insignia on an air force plane being used to deliver bombs to Darfur.

After months of threats President Bush proposed a package of economic sanctions on Bashir’s Sudan on Tuesday and called for an expanded Security Council arms embargo. He also raised the possibility of the international community’s imposing a military no-flight-zone over Darfur to block aircraft from bombing and strafing villages.

This crisis will not end without a large and well-armed peacekeeping force — to protect civilians and desperately needed aid workers — and that is exactly what Bashir has not agreed to. Khartoum and Darfur’s rebel groups also need to be pressured and shepherded into a political agreement.

More than four years into Darfur’s nightmare, at least 200,000 people are dead and more than 2.5 million displaced, and the numbers are climbing. If the millions of lives still at risk are to be saved, there is no time for further delay.