Amsterdam  - The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on Wednesday, did not include a count of genocide against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged atrocities in Darfur as had been widely expected.

The ICC listed only five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes, but left the door open for amendments to the charge sheet to include genocide if more evidence is gathered in the case against him.

Speaking after the ICC announcement in The Hague on Wednesday, a Dutch expert on Sudan and the United Nations said it was never going to be easy to bring a charge of genocide against al-Bashir.

Genocide is the most serious charge in international law, requiring convincing and unequivocal evidence, said Dick Leurdijk of Clingendael Institute for International Relations and Diplomacy in The Hague.

"Apparently the evidence ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presented the court was insufficient to substantiate this allegation," Leurdijk said.

"Former US secretary of state Colin Powell was the first to refer to a "genocide" in Darfur in September 2004," he added.

"But the European Union and the United Nations always consistently refrained from using that term. They may have been proven right by the court today," Leurdijk said.

However, he did not exclude the possibility that the charges against al-Bashir could actually be amended at a later stage.

Leurdijk said it was "too bad" that Moreno-Ocampo did not explain why Sudan would be obliged under international law to arrest al- Bashir even on its own territory.

"After all, Sudan has not recognized the authority of the International Criminal Court," he noted said.

"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," he said. (dpa)