Rebel groups kill 40 in Darfur - report

LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) Up to 40 people were killed in clashes between rebel groups in south Darfur, forcing foreign aid workers to abandon the Greida refugee camp, the Guardian newspaper reported on its Web site today.

Fighters loyal to the Justice and Equality Movement, one of two rebel factions that did not sign a May peace agreement, used mortars and heavy machines to attack men from a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, which signed the deal, the report said.

The report said the fighting appears to be the worst since the peace deal was signed in May.

''Exchanges of fire lasted for three to four hours. It was only a mile from the town. It happened on Friday'', the Guardian quoted an official from one of several aid agencies which withdrew from Greida to Nyala, the regional capital, at the weekend.

An estimated 130,000 people displaced by the conflict in Darfur live in the camp beside Greida.

As many as 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million forced from their homes by the fighting that began in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government charging it with neglect.

Efforts to stem the violence through the intervention of a UN force have been stymied by Khartoum's refusal to allow international peacekeepers into its western region.

European diplomats were in Sudan over the weekend and in Addis Ababa today to try to break the impasse to ensure a security vacuum does not occur when the mandate for AU forces ends on December 31.

REUTERS LL BD1958