Darfur's main armed group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), on Sunday threatened to pull out of peace talks with the Sudanese government after it launched a military offensive on its positions.

"The government has put an end, on the ground, to the ceasefire with the never-ending aggressions" JEM group spokesman Ahmad Hussein Adam told AFP.

"The aggression has put an end to the peace process and we will evaluate the situation at a time when an all-out-war is launched against us," he said.

But JEM negotiator Ahmad Tugud Lisan, who is holding peace talks with Sudanese government officials in the Qatari capital, Doha, sought to defuse the tension. "We have not decided yet if we will pull out of the Doha process," he told AFP.

Adam also criticised what he termed the inaction of African Union and United Nations peacekeepers (UNAMID) in Darfur since his announcement on Friday of attacks by government forces.

Meanwhile, in a statement to AFP Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad meanwhile denied that the troops were engaged in any confrontations in the Jebel Moon region.

JEM, one of two key Darfur rebel groups, signed a framework accord in February in Doha that was hailed by the international community as a major step towards bringing peace to the region devastated by seven years of war.

But talks between Khartoum and the JEM have since run into problems and a deadline set under the accord for completing the peace deal passed on March 15 without agreement.

Darfur, an arid desert region the size of France, has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.