The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Yokohama

Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir on Wednesday demanded international action against Chad as tensions between the two countries flared over the Darfur crisis. Beshir made his call at a summit of some 40 African leaders in Yokohama, Japan, striking a discordant note at the start of a meeting focused on development and poverty alleviation.

Darfur rebels earlier this month launched a deadly raid that reached the outskirts of the Sudanese capital Khartoum with the declared intent of toppling Beshir's regime. "A Darfurian rebel faction supported and equipped by the government of Chad launched a terrorist aggression against innocent civilians in the Sudanese capital," Beshir said. "The world should no longer tolerate such actions," he told the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which was attended by a senior Chadian minister.

Beshir insisted that Sudan was complying with international efforts to resolve the conflict in the parched western province of Darfur, where violence broke out in 2003.

"However, our efforts are being undermined by unjustifiable and unacceptable external violations of our sovereignty and the right of the Sudanese people to live in peace," he said.

Chad has denied backing the assault on Khartoum, which led Sudan to sever diplomatic relations.

The Darfur conflict has caused hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees to flee across the Chadian border.

Sudan and Chad have traded accusations that they are trying to destabilise their respective regimes.

The United Nations says the death toll from five years of war, famine and disease in Darfur may be up to 300,000 in a conflict that the United States has branded an act of genocide against Darfur's indigenous African population.

Khartoum puts the toll at 9,000.