By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch urged the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to impose targeted sanctions on Sudan if it fails to stop attacks on civilians in Darfur or disrupts the work of a planned peacekeeping force.

The U.S.-based group said in a report that civilians were suffering as the conflict in Sudan's remote west descended into "a violent scramble for power and resources" between government troops, Khartoum-backed militias, rebel groups and bandits.

"Targeted sanctions should be imposed on Sudan if it obstructs peacekeepers and allows attacks on civilians," said Peter Takirambudde, Human Rights Watch's Africa director.

The U.N. Security Council has already imposed an arms embargo on Darfur "belligerents" and has ordered an asset freeze and travel embargo on four people. But the moves have not been aimed directly at the government.

Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Lam Akol dismissed the calls for U.N. sanctions and said accusations of government attacks on civilians were "rubbish".

"We have heard Human Rights Watch calling for sanctions many times before. But how can they say this? We welcome the deployment of the peacekeepers. We are working hard to achieve it and implement it," he told Reuters.

The report also urged peacekeeping troops -- both African troops currently on the ground and a planned U.N.-African Union joint replacement force of 26,000 -- to beef up protection of displaced families and other non-combatants.

International experts say 200,000 people have died as a result of ethnic and political conflict in Darfur since fighting flared in 2003 and 2.5 million people have been displaced. Khartoum says 9,000 have died.

Washington, which calls the conflict genocide, unilaterally imposed sanctions against 31 Sudanese companies in May, barring them from doing business in the U.S. financial system.

Sudan has agreed to hold peace talks with Darfur rebel groups in Libya on Oct. 27 to push for peace before the deployment of the joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force, and President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has said he would observe a ceasefire from the start of the talks.

Human Rights Watch, in its 76-page report, said the mere presence of peacekeeping troops would not be enough to protect those displaced in the conflict.

Peacekeepers would have to be deployed "widely and strategically", have strong rapid-response capabilities and be equipped with adequate personnel, attack helicopters, and armoured personnel carriers, the report said.

It also called for more human rights officers and patrols protecting markets and women collecting firewood, and called on existing peacekeeping forces to resume patrols that it said had been suspended in some areas for more than a year.

Rebel groups who attack civilians should face penalties from the United Nations or its member states, the report said.

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