A spokesman for the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur said an armed group has kidnapped two of its foreign civilian workers.

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

Unidentified gunmen killed five African Union soldiers guarding a "water point" near the border with Chad in the deadliest attack on the peacekeepers since their deployment in 2004, an AU spokesman said today.

The chief of the only Darfur rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government set an ultimatum today for Khartoum to disarm the feared janjaweed paramilitary group by the end of December.

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.