The Khartoum government announced it would expel the agencies after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir, who is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out in Darfur, western Sudan.

"There won't be a statement," Britain's UN ambassador John Sawers said after the closed-door meeting.

Aid groups condemned the United Nation's inaction as "grotesque."

"The Security Council should condemn the fact that an indicted war criminal has deliberately put yet more lives at risk by expelling aid workers," said Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch.

"This is no time for the council to debate letting Beshir off the hook for crimes against humanity. That is simply grotesque."

Earlier on Friday, Washington's ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice blasted Sudan's decision, describing it as "reckless" and "callous."

"The United States is gravely concerned by the reckless decision of the Sudanese government to expel international aid groups working to ease the suffering of Sudan's citizens," Rice told reporters in a conference call.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum and its allies.

Over the last six years, the rebels have fractured into multiple movements, fraying rebel groups, banditry, flip-flopping militias and the war has widened into overlapping tribal conflicts.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million fled their homes.

Many of the rebels enjoy direct and indirect foreign support that helped fuel the conflict, with some critics pointing the finger at France, which has a military presence in neighbouring Chad – also accused of arming the Sudanese rebels. France had been accused of involvement in the genocide in Rwanda, but Paris denied responsibility, conceding only that ‘political’ errors were made.

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