Sarkozy spoke at a meeting of the International Contact Group on Darfur, which opened Monday in Paris. The agenda of the conference, attended by 20 countries and international organizations, including the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, the UN and the EU, is focusing on deploying an international peacekeeping force in Darfur and providing humanitarian aid to the region.
"Sudan must realize that if it cooperates, we will help it, but if it refuses to cooperate, we will be uncompromising," Sarkozy said.
Sudan earlier rejected the idea of holding an international conference on Darfur, and refused to send its representatives to the French capital.
The United Nations estimates inter-ethnic violence and disease have killed at least 200,000 in Darfur since the conflict began in February 2003 between rebel groups seeking independence for the oil-rich region and the central government in Khartoum.
In March 2007, the UN mission accused Sudan's government of orchestrating and taking part in "gross violations" in Darfur, and called for urgent international action to protect civilians.
The United States announced new sanctions against Khartoum in late May, accusing it of genocide. Washington is also pushing for additional sanctions against the Sudanese government led by President Omar al-Beshir.
Most permanent members of the UN Security Council backed the U.S. move, but Russia and China have repeatedly opposed further pressure on the Sudanese government.
"Voicing its opinion on various aspects of the 'Darfur dossier' at the UN Security Council, Russia, China and some non-permanent members are seeking to find a compromise solution to the 'Darfur knot' and to cushion a one-sided and counterproductive trend to increase pressure on Sudanese authorities, including sanctions," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Monday.
Yakovenko said that additional pressure would only encourage the Darfur opposition to put forward harsher demands and eliminate the prospects of finding a compromise altogether.
After months of rejection, Khartoum agreed earlier in June to a peacekeeping operation in Darfur, to be run jointly by the UN and the African Union (AU), which provides the bulk of the 23,000 foreign troops to be deployed in the province.
The 53-member AU currently has a 7,000-strong force in Darfur, but has so far been unable to stop fighting between the rebels and pro-government militia in Sudan's vast western region, where over 2 million people have been displaced domestically or have fled to other countries in the four-year war.
