The Hague  - The International Criminal Court (ICC) and its chief prosecutor went to great lengths on Wednesday to emphasize that Sudan is obligated, under international law, to arrest its President Omar al-Bashir and transfer him to The Hague.

In its official statement after announcing that the international arrest warrant has been issued, the ICC said if Sudan, which so far has defied United Nations resolutions to cooperate with the court, fails to arrest him, it would refer the case back to the UN Security Council.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, addressing the media in The Hague, stressed that Sudan was, "under international law, obliged to execute the warrant of arrest on its territory."

"If Sudan does not execute the warrant, the UN Security Council will need to ensure compliance."

Moreno-Ocampo also said al-Bashir could be arrested "as soon as he travels though international airspace." Al-Bashir, 65, faces charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his alleged role in the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region.

It was "too bad" that Moreno-Ocampo did not elaborate on why or how Sudan would be obliged under international law to arrest al- Bashir even in its own territory, said analyst Dick Leurdijk of the Clingendael Institute for International Relations and Diplomacy in The Hague.

"After all, Sudan has not recognized the authority of the International Criminal Court," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"The ICC was established through political negotiations, not on the basis of a UN Security Council resolution like the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia," Leurdijk said.

The ICC statement refers to UN Security Council Resolution 1593 and articles 25 and 103 of the UN Charter as the legal basis for Sudan's obligation to arrest its own leader.

Resolution 1593, adopted by the council in 2005, was the basis upon which the situation in Darfur was initially referred to the International Criminal Court.

The resolution, which explicitly says Sudan has no obligations under the Statute of Rome - the founding document of the ICC - merely "urges" the country to "cooperate fully" with the ICC.

The wording of articles 25 and 103 of the UN Charter sounds more conclusive, but has so far not proven to be enforceable upon the Sudanese government, which has a long-standing record of non-cooperation.

Article 25 of the Charter stipulates that UN members "agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter."

Article 103 determines that member states' obligations to the UN Charter always prevail over its obligations to any other international agreement.

ICC's emphasis on Sudan's "legal obligations" has clearly not had any effect so far.

Hours after the warrant was announced Wednesday, Sudanese officials announced that al-Bashir would continue to travel to all international conferences to which he is invited, including this month's Arab League summit in Qatar.

This implies that Sudan also expects other countries to consider themselves not bound by UN Security Council Resolution 1593 either - despite the fact the resolution "urges" both state parties to the Rome Statute and other countries to execute the court's warrant.

Al-Bashir is the first sitting president to be charged with war crimes and the most senior figure to be pursued by the ICC since its inception in 2002. The court is the world's first permanent court for prosecuting war crimes. (dpa)