ABUJA, Aug 23: Sudanese peace talks began under a cloud on Monday as Khartoum rejected a plan for African troops to disarm rebels in the war-torn Darfur region.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, African Union (AU) chairman and host of the talks in Abuja, said AU troops were needed because Sudan's forces were incapable of disarming the rebels without further bloodshed.

African Union troops could do this, he said, while Khartoum disarmed the Janjaweed militia, allies of the government who are widely accused of mass killings, rape and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

"I don't think there is a need for this," Mazjoub al Khalifa, Sudan's agriculture minister and top negotiator, said before talks began with two Darfur rebel groups. "Simultaneously we will disarm the rebel movements, the Janjaweed and other militia."

That plan was swiftly dismissed by a top rebel official. "There is no way we can let our enemies disarm us. They are still killing us and bombing us," said Abubakar Hamid Nour, coordinator of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

Delegates said Monday's formal talks between the government and rebels began with each side presenting its case, followed by an agreement to set up a committee to discuss the agenda on Monday night.

The government said the meeting had begun well, while rebels said they were not optimistic. "They are talking of development and security issues. Darfur is a political problem," said Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, chief JEM negotiator.

Darfur rebels began an armed revolt against the government in February last year after years of conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers over scarce resources in the arid region.

They are demanding a greater role for ethnic minorities of the Darfur region in government, which they say is dominated by northern Sudanese of Arab extraction. More than one million Darfuris have fled their homes in the past 18 months for fear of attack by the Janjaweed, camel-riding Arab militia who were mobilised by the government as auxiliaries in a campaign to crush the rebels.

Khartoum denies supporting the Janjaweed's actions and calls them outlaws. The government has intensified efforts to prove it is cracking down on the militia ahead of an Aug 30 UN Security Council deadline to show progress in protecting civilians and disarming the Janjaweed or face possible sanctions. -Reuters