El Fasher, Sudan ? Tribal leaders on Friday rejected the possibility of U.N. peacekeepers replacing African Union forces in Darfur, with one chief threatening a “holy war” if non-African troops come to the Sudanese region.

Their concerns emerged as U.N. Security Council members met with Sudanese government and tribal leaders, relief workers and about 15 representatives of displaced people living in volatile camps surrounding this northern Darfur town.

The council steered clear of the camps because of security concerns sparked by opposition to a Darfur peace agreement the government and main rebel group signed May 5.

Earlier this week in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, President Omar al-Bashir told the council his government would move ahead with discussions on replacing African Union peacekeepers with a U.N. force, but he refused to give an immediate green light to the plan.

That reluctance was echoed by tribal and youth leaders invited to meet the council in Darfur, the vast western region ravaged by an ethnic conflict some call a genocide. Fighting has left 180,000 people dead and an additional 2 million homeless.

Mowadh Jalaladin, a representative of the Barty tribe, which he said has about 250,000 members, said that handing over control to a U.N. force “would inaugurate foreign occupation and intervention” and remind Sudanese of their colonial past, echoing earlier government rhetoric that has fanned anti-U.N. sentiment.

The cry also has been taken up by Islamic militants.

The Al-Jazeera satellite channel on Friday broadcast a videotape by the deputy leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, in which he said the U.N. Security Council visit to Sudan was “to prepare to occupy and divide it.”

In a tape aired on Arab television in April, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden urged followers to fight any U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan.

“If a U.N. force comes to Darfur, Jalaladin said, “we are declaring jihad against it.

“It means death. It means defending Sudan and Islam,” Jalaladin said.