GENEINA, Aug 27: A group of 78 Eritreans being deported home from Libya hijacked their plane on Friday and diverted it to Khartoum in Sudan, where they surrendered, UN and Sudanese officials said.

A senior Sudanese official said the specially chartered plane had taken off from the Libyan town of Khufrah and was heading for the Eritrean capital Asmara when the deportees seized control.

Libya had denied them refugee status and they wanted to seek asylum in Sudan rather than returning home, the official said, adding: "The United Nations is dealing with this."

A UN official in Khartoum said representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees were at a meeting on the case. Jean-Marie Fakhouri, regional operations director of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told reporters in Geneva that UN officials had been called to Khartoum airport.

"At one o'clock Geneva time (1100 GMT), the Eritreans actually surrendered to the authorities," he said. The plane, which had no other passengers apart from the Eritreans, was surrounded by police on landing, he added. -Reuters