'both China and the USA are competing to curry favour with the (repressive) Sudanese government to get the several billion dollar's worth of oil-find contract.' Look, I'm not going to challenge your obviously inside knowledge of CIA offices. But as a matter of fact, the US has unilateral sanctions against Sudan. See: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/20890.htm In contrast, no European countries have such sanctions, and British companies continue to trade there: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1884606,00.html So in fact, the US is not competing for oil contracts. Come on, there are no shortage of blog posts seeing the US as the fount of all evil in the world, and indeed, no shortage of things to blame the US for. Let's criticise them when it's due, but let's also recognise that they've taken a stronger line on Darfur than the rest of the world.

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The world community in the mid noughties.

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