“I can’t take anything seriously that Bashir says,” Clinton told NBC television’s “Meet the Press” program.

“He is an indicted war criminal. The United States is very committed to seeing him brought to justice.”

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur, was re-elected on Monday with 68.24 percent of the vote, the country’s first multi-party poll in 24 years.

But the credibility of the election was undermined by opposition boycotts, allegations of fraud and questions from international monitors about transparency.

Clinton said “it was by any measure a flawed election.

“There were many, many things wrong with it,” she explained.

“But there hadn’t been an election in many years. And so, part of our goal was to try to empower opposition parties, empower people to go out and vote. Thousands and thousands did.” The White House has already said that the conflict in Darfur did not provide an environment conducive to acceptable polls.

Clinton said the administration of President Barack Obama was beginning to see “some slight progress in Darfur,” but did not offer details. “I don’t want to overstate it, because it is still a deplorable situation,” the secretary of state noted.

Obama announced in October that the United States would engage in more active diplomacy with Sudan’s regime.

Washington would offer incentives for engagement but keep the threat of sanctions if Khartoum continued to pursue what the United States has termed genocide in the Darfur region. A report released on Thursday by a group of eight NGOs warned that Sudan risked a return to violence if the Obama administration did not pressure parties on the ground to work for peace.

Meanwhile, four people died on Sunday in clashes between Sudanese security forces and protesters angry over a failed investment scheme in Darfur, witnesses said.

Automatic gunfire erupted after about 1,000 people moved toward the center of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, UN officials and aid workers said.

Local residents said protesters were angry after losing money in a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid model where money is paid from one investor to the other and presented as profit.

Two members of the crowd said security forces opened fire on protesters. One humanitarian aid source said some protesters were also armed and there were exchanges of fire.

“Between four and 10 people have been killed ... and 30 to 40 people injured ... There was intense fighting. We can not say who killed who,” said an aid official, asking not to be named.

Aid workers and UN officials took refuge in their compounds during the confrontation. “There is a lot of confusion ... We don’t know if it is police shooting, or civilians, or the Arab militias in town. They lost a lot of money and are very unhappy,” said one aid worker, speaking by phone.

The fighting had ended by early afternoon but streets were largely deserted and shops shut, residents of the area said.

“They used guns against the protest ... They shot some people,” said Dirar Abdullah Dirar, a member of the League of the Victims of the El Mawasir Market, which helped organize the protest to demand the return of investors’ money. Mawasir is a local term for pipes, slang for a swindle.