New York/The Hague - A panel of judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague has decided to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, The New York Times reported on its website Thursday, citing court lawyers and diplomats.

At United Nations headquarters in New York, spokeswoman Marie Okabe denied the Times' report that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had been notified by the court that a warrant would be issued.

"No decision has been received by the secretary general," she said late Wednesday. "We do not anticipate receiving such communication. We do not normally receive decisions of the court."

On Monday, an ICC spokeswoman in The Hague had said that a decision on the arrest warrant was likely within weeks, not days.

The warrant arises from a request in July by ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for Bashir's arrest on allegations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region, where an ethnic conflict has raged since 2003.

The charges to be included in the warrant were not immediately reported. The arrest warrant would be the first issued by the ICC for a sitting head of state.

Sudanese UN Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem called a possible arrest warrant an "insult" to Sudan.

"It will mean nothing to us and does not deserve the ink with which it is written," he said late Wednesday.

The African Union and Arab diplomats have warned that attempts to prosecute Bashir would complicate the Darfur peace process.

The United Nations Security Council, which referred the Darfur case to the ICC for prosecution, has the power to halt the prosecution but has refused to intervene.

The Security Council plans to meet later Thursday with representatives of the African Union and Arab League to discuss the Darfur issue, according to Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu, who hold the council's rotating presidency this month. He said late Wednesday that there had been no confirmation of an ICC arrest warrant for Bashir.

"The mood in the council is to be prepared and deal with it when it comes," Takasu said. "We are getting lots of news and indications, but nothing official yet."

An estimated 300,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict, and millions of refugees have fled. (dpa)