18 July 2004	Sunday	29 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

ADDIS ABABA, July 17: Rebels from Sudan's Darfur region said on Saturday they were quitting African Union (AU)-mediated peace efforts and would return only when the Sudanese government had met their six conditions for talks.

"We'll stay here overnight and then leave (for home)," Ahmed Tugod Lissan, coordinator for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told reporters after meeting AU mediators in Addis Ababa.

"By refusing to accept our demands the government in Khartoum is saying that it is not prepared to discuss the disarmament of the Janjaweed who are conducting ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Africans in Sudan," Lissan said.

He said he was speaking on behalf of JEM and the Sudan Liberation Army.-Reuters