The African Union, which sponsors the talks, is holding separate meetings with rebels and the government in an attempt to find common ground after several rounds of talks failed last year to produce an effective ceasefire deal. The rebel group said it wanted to see the process of prosecutions begin before returning to the negotiating table.

“We affirm the movement will not participate in the peace negotiations before the referral of the criminals to the (International Criminal) Court and we think this embodies the wishes of all the people of Darfur,” said their statement, addressed to the president of the UN Security Council.

The statement, sent to Reuters, said the movement remained committed to peace talks with the government and to respecting all agreements signed with Khartoum. A UN-appointed commission of inquiry into the fighting in Darfur stopped short of agreeing with a US declaration of genocide there, but gave Secretary-General Kofi Annan a sealed list of 51 people suspected of war crimes.

The United Nations says the government armed Arab militias known locally as Janjaweed to quash the rebellion. The Janjaweed now stand accused of a widespread campaign of killing, rape, looting and burning in non-Arab villages. Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and almost 2 million have fled their homes to makeshift camps, where thousands die every month from malnutrition and disease.

The other Darfur rebel group at Abuja, the Sudan Liberation Army, said it would only go back to talks if the government withdrew from all areas it had occupied since a much violated cease-fire in April last year.

Rebels also said they were boycotting the activities of a cease-fire monitoring body because they were not consulted on decisions affecting African Union activities in the region.

The rebels said Sudan, as a member state, is represented on an internal AU body that makes decisions about the pan-African body’s monitoring of the shaky April ceasefire but they are left without a voice.

“Since Saturday, we have boycotted the activities of the cease-fire commission,” said Abdur Rahman Fadul, who represents the JEM on the commission. JEM and the SLM are the two main rebels groups in Darfur. Both are represented on the cease-fire commission along with the Sudanese government and AU officials. “We have reservations regarding decisions being made without consultation with all the parties,” Fadul told Reuters by telephone from Darfur.

Meanwhile, an internationally-backed plan on developing Sudan after its 21-year civil war that ended earlier this year was launched yesterday in Nairobi. Sudan needs almost eight billion dollars for reconstruction and development over the next two years to recover from two decades of north-south civil war, an assessment team said. The team, made up of representatives from the Khartoum government and the ex-rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army, said $7.8 billion would be required through 2007.