Khartoum, Sudan ? President Omar el-Bashir pledged to end violence in Sudan’s western Darfur region in comments aired Saturday, but his vice president said it was not practical to disarm within 30 days the Arab militias responsible for the killings of some 30,000 people.

El-Bashir blamed “plotters” and “enemies” for the violence in Darfur in remarks apparently aimed at defending his government’s claims that rebel groups were behind the conflict.

Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, have carried out a campaign of killings in the vast western region, killing and raping black African villagers in what the U.S. Congress has called a genocide. The United States, European Union and humanitarian groups accuse el-Bashir’s government of backing the militiamen in an attempt to put down the black African rebel groups.

Khartoum denies backing the Janjaweed. Some 30,000 have been killed in the violence, and 2.2 million people are in urgent need of food and other aid.

On July 30, the U.N. Security Council gave Sudan 30 days to disarm the militias and quell ethnic violence in Darfur region or face economic or diplomatic penalties.

“We are doing our best to meet that deadline, but definitely, due to logistical problems and limitations we have at the moment, I don’t think the time frame is practical,” Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha told the British Broadcasting Corp., in an interview recorded Monday.

Darfur’s troubles stem from long-standing tensions between nomadic Arab tribes and African farming neighbors over dwindling water and agricultural land.

Violence exploded in February 2003 when two rebel groups — the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army — took up arms over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle with Arab countrymen.

El-Bashir said the rebels began fighting because they were disappointed that successful efforts were under way to end a separate, long-running conflict in southern Sudan.

Women wait to receive bags containing food during an airdrop by the United Nations World Food Program near the town of Habilla in Darfur, Sudan. President Omar el-Bashir has pledged to stamp out violence in the region that has left 30,000 dead and 2.2 million in urgent need of food and other aid.

“Every good thing that happens to Sudan is unfavorably received by plotters involved in a conspiracy (against the government) and, subsequently, the plotting of the enemies increases,” el-Bashir said in his speech, which was taped Thursday.

The Sudanese government also has accused Western countries of fueling the strife in Darfur in a bid to take control of the country’s natural resources.