Eight killed in east Sudan clash - army

CAIRO, April 12 (Reuters) Six civilians and two rebel fighters were killed in eastern Sudan when rebels attacked government positions, an armed forces official said today.

Eastern Sudan contains the country's only port and main oil pipeline and rebels there accuse the government of raising local militias and causing insecurity.

Rebels attacked two sites in Kassala state, Tanay and Wagr, simultaneously yesterday using infantry and vehicles fitted with guns, the official said.

''The rebels withdrew after the Sudanese army, backed by the airforce, drove them out, killing two rebels in a battle that lasted about two hours,'' said the official, who did not want to be named.

Rebels of the Eastern Front fought alongside former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) during a two-decade long civil war with the Khartoum government. The SPLM signed a peace deal last year and joined the government.

The Eastern Front does not want government forces taking over positions vacated by SPLM forces, who will leave the area as part of the peace deal.

The official said the Beja Congress, one of the groups that makes up the Eastern Front, and the Justice and Equality Movement, a group that has members fighting in the separate rebellion in Darfur, took part in the attack.

An official from the Beja Congress said the attacks, in an area around 40 km (25 miles) north of Kassala town, came in response to continued government attempts to move into rebel areas.

''The militia and the army tried to enter our areas ... They have been trying this for three months,'' said Abdallah Moussa Abdallah, Secretary-General of the Beja Congress. Abdallah said he did not have precise details about the clash.

East Sudan contains Port Sudan, the head of the main pipeline for the country's oil exports, and has offshore natural gas reserves.

The region, which also contains the country's largest gold mine, has been largely overlooked by the international community in favour of Darfur, where three years of conflict have killed tens of thousands and made two million homeless.

REUTERS SRS VC2202