WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it had tightened security at its embassy in Khartoum and offices in south Sudan after an international prosecutor sought the arrest of Sudan's president on genocide charges in Darfur.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States had assessed its security situation at both the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum and at U.S. facilities in the southern Sudan capital of Juba and taken the appropriate measures.

"We have taken the appropriate steps," said McCormack, who refused to provide details on how security had been tightened.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court's prosecutor charged Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with masterminding a campaign of genocide in Darfur, killing 35,000 people and using rape as a weapon of war.

ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court for an arrest warrant for Bashir, the first sitting head of state to be pursued by an international court since Liberia's Charles Taylor and before that Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic.

Asked whether he feared a backlash against the United States and international peacekeeping forces in Sudan following the ICC prosecutor's decision, McCormack said: "It certainly is a possibility."

He added: "We would urge restraint on all parties in Sudan." (Reporting by Sue Pleming; Editing by Eric Beech)

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