Sudan demands end to Chad support for Darfur rebels
Sudan on Sunday insisted that Chad end its support for Darfur rebels and warned it would be ready to retaliate to any attack on the border between the two neighbours.
"Normalisation of relations ... depends on Chad's cessation of its support to the armed factions that instigate the dispute in Darfur, especially the Justice and Equality Movement," said presidential advisor Mustafa Osman Ismail.
The senior official, quoted by the state news agency Suna, accused Chad of supplying the main rebel group in the Darfur region of western Sudan with arms and ammunition.
Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno has threatened to break off relations with Sudan in the aftermath of two days of fighting with Sudan-based rebels in the east of the country.
On Saturday, Chad which accuses Khartoum of backing the rebels declared victory over the Sudan-based fighters after fierce desert battles that left scores dead.
A UN Security Council meeting in New York unanimously condemned the rebel offensive, which came shortly after Ndjamena and Khartoum signed the latest in a series of peace accords, none of which has had any lasting effect.
Amid the heightened tensions, Sudan's Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein warned on Sunday that the army was ready "to repulse any aggression on Sudanese territories," Suna reported.
Chad has claimed the right of hot pursuit of Chadian rebels across the border in Sudan.
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