UNITED NATIONS - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown appealed to the world here Wednesday to pressure Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir into rescinding his expulsion of 13 international aid agencies from Darfur.

"It is very important that we send a message to the president of Sudan that humanitarian agencies are doing vital work," Brown told a press conference with UN chief Ban Ki-moon at his side.

"Even at this stage I want the whole world to ask him to remove the ban on humanitarian agencies and to recognize that they are absolutely essential to the protection of people in Sudan," the British leader added.

Khartoum ordered the 13 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) out of Darfur earlier this month after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Beshir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

The court indicted the Sudanese leader on five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes over his government's conduct of its six-year-old war against ethnic minority rebels in Darfur.

Sudan has alleged, without providing evidence, that some of the NGOs harmed its security by providing information to the ICC.

Khartoum has called the expulsions irreversible.

The NGO ban worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning Tuesday it would have to appeal to international donors for extra funds following the expulsion of 3,142 aid workers.

The global body says 300,000 people have died -- many from disease and hunger -- and 2.7 million been made homeless by the Darfur conflict, which erupted in February 2003.

Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

Many African and Arab states, along with key Khartoum ally China, have condemned the ICC move and called for the warrant to be suspended.