Sudan's security chief has warned that foreigners could be targeted by radicals if the International Criminal Court indicts President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for alleged war crimes.

State media quotes Salah Gosh, who is head of Sudan's National Security and Intelligence Service, as saying it would be hard to predict what so-called "outlaws" would do if the court takes action against the president.

Omar al-Bashir (file photo)

The international court is expected to decide soon if it will issue an arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir.  The ICC's chief prosecutor accuses Mr. Bashir of orchestrating a genocide in the Darfur region, where rebels have been fighting Khartoum's rule since 2003.

Last month, the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, told the U.N. Security Council that more than 5,000 displaced people die each month in Darfur.  

He said the attacks and rapes in and around Darfur camps, and the obstruction of humanitarian efforts, are only possible with the compliance of the Sudanese government.

Sudan, assisted by China, is campaigning to stop or postpone any ICC actions against Mr. Bashir.  Sudanese officials say an arrest warrant would harm the president's efforts to end the Darfur conflict.  

U.N. experts say the fighting and related violence in the region has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.7 million others.

Sudan puts the death toll much lower, at 10,000.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.