UN says 300,000 may have died in Darfur over last five years

It looks like we desperately need a lot more constructive cooperation at the UN Security Council level than we are seeing today.

Holmes was later asked by reporters to clarify his estimate. He said he was "not trying to give an exact figure" and described 300,000 as a "reasonable extrapolation" from the 2006 estimate for the current total number of people who have died in Darfur of disease, hunger or in combat.

Holmes said the original 200,000 figure was based on a 2-year-old study by the World Health Organization. He said there were no plans now for a new scientific study to determine the precise number of deaths in Darfur caused by the conflict.

Asked if the figure could be even higher than 300,000, Holmes said: "I'm trying to be reasonable, conservative."