Sudanese government planes have bombed a southern Darfur area, burning homes and sending thousands fleeing, according to peacekeepers and rebels.

DARFUR rebels said yesterday they had attacked an army base in West Darfur, killing a large number of soldiers in a renewal of fighting in the troubled area near Sudan’s western border with Chad.

A SENIOR officer with the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur in western Sudan was attacked yesterday by gunmen who seriously wounded his driver, the force said in a statement.

Sudan’s government committed to a ceasefire in Darfur at the start of peace talks, but many rebels boycotted the UN-sponsored negotiations.

Negotiators moved to lower expectations ahead of the opening of the Darfur peace talks today, with almost none of the key rebel leaders present to negotiate an agreement with the Sudanese government.

In a rare, high-profile visit to the West, Sudan’s president today met with the pope and Italy’s premier, and offered to declare a cease-fire with Darfur rebels to coincide with the start of UN-backed peace talks next month.

Children in Darfur are enduring “unspeakable acts of violence and abuse” from killing and rape to abduction, torture and recruitment, as fighters in the escalating four-year conflict, a world group of relief and human rights organisations said today.

The head of one Darfur’s main rebel groups said he is willing to call a ceasefire if the Khartoum government stops attacks on civilians in the war-torn region and agrees to re-negotiate the Darfur peace deal – but warned of a new offensive if it fails to do so.

ONE of the biggest remaining Darfur rebel alliances yesterday said it would respect a ceasefire and was ready to resume peace talks with Sudan’s government.

Sudan braced for a diplomatic showdown today as the government confirmed it intended to secure the chairmanship of the African Union.

The African Union stepped up pressure on Sudan’s holdout rebels to sign a deal to end Darfur’s three-year civil war and appealed for a stronger African peacekeeping force to monitor implementation of the peace agreement signed by the government and the main rebel group.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief left a Darfur refugee camp in a hurry Monday after demonstrators – calling for UN peacekeepers – attacked a translator, accusing him of supporting the feared Janjaweed militia, a UN spokeswoman said.

Two of the three rebel groups in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region are refusing to sign a peace plan today, jeopardising efforts to end the bloodbath that has cost at least 180,000 lives.

The US and Britain pressed Sudan’s government and Darfur rebels to meet today’s deadline for a peace deal, even as ground units stepped up fighting that has killed at least 180,000 people and left millions more homeless.

Thousands of people joined celebrities and lawmakers at a US rally yesterday urging the Bush administration and Congress to help end genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The Sudanese government confirmed today that it will sign a draft agreement with rebels from its Darfur region as talks continued despite a question marking hanging over the deal.

A Sudanese Darfur rebel faction has demanded that the African Union (AU) extend its deadline for the concluding peace talks, as Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo pressured the warring sides to sign a proposed deal.

The African Union will end talks among warring parties in Sudan’s Darfur region by April 30 if the Khartoum government and rebel factions fail to agree to a peace deal, a senior mediator says.

Sudan’s government and two rebel groups signed an agreement on how to resolve the conflict in the country’s western Darfur region.

The main rebel movement in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region threatened to quit peace talks with the government, alleging fresh attacks on its positions.

Two main rebel groups in Sudan’s conflict-ridden Darfur region signed a declaration yesterday pledging to adhere to a ceasefire and help facilitate the flow of humanitarian relief aid.

US legislators have vowed to push for UN sanctions against the Sudanese government after meeting with Darfur rebels in western Sudan and visiting camps for Sudanese refugees in Chad over the weekend.

The UN World Food Program suspended food convoys to the Darfur region in western Sudan after rebel forces attacked the market town of Ghubaysh and the government retaliated, UN humanitarian officials said.

CHAOS is looming in Sudan’s western Darfur region as violence increases, order collapses, and the number of desperate people in need of humanitarian aid reaches nearly 2.3 million, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the United Nations Security Council.

Sudan has claimed 25 people, including 22 policemen, were killed in rebel attacks on Monday on several camps housing tens of thousands of people displaced by the 21-month Darfur conflict.

SECURITY in Sudan’s Darfur region is a “farce” with the government engaged in ethnic cleansing and rebel groups looting and abducting civilians in violation of an April cease-fire, a rights group said yesterday.

Saying they hoped African leaders could solve without sanctions what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the leaders of Egypt, Chad, Nigeria and Libya discussed the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region with the Sudanese president.

African Union monitors are investigating claims that the Sudanese military bombarded a village with helicopter gunships, driving terrified farmers from their homes, just days before the expiry of a United Nations deadline to end the violence in Darfur.

A Sudanese minister has rejected any immediate wider role for African Union troops in its troubled Darfur region, saying security in the western region is the responsibility of Sudanese forces.

PUSHED to end the Darfur crisis, Sudan’s government gathered in Nigeria yesterday for talks with rebel leaders in Sudan’s bloodied western Darfur region.

Pushed to end what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, envoys of Sudan’s government gathered in Nigeria today for talks with rebel leaders in Sudan’s bloodied western Darfur region.

AID workers who were forced to leave two refugee camps in Chad because of violence have resumed their operations.

WHILE world leaders recently gathered to mark the tenth anniversary of Rwanda’s genocide, another horror story has been unfolding in Sudan.

SUDAN'S government and Arab militias are waging a joint "scorched-earth" campaign of murder, rape and looting of non-Arab ethnic communities in western Sudan, displacing over one million people, Human Rights Watch has said.