(Adds U.N. comment in paragraphs 14-15; rebel attack claim, 7)

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A senior Darfur rebel leader accused the Sudanese government on Wednesday of trying to grab land ahead of October peace talks, and threatened to pull out of the negotiations unless attacks stopped.

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim said the violence in the remote west would make it impossible for him to travel to negotiations with Khartoum, due to take place in Libya on Oct. 27.

"The government is escalating its attacks. There are daily attacks," he said. "They are killing civilians and animals and there are displaced people. They are trying to take as much land as possible before the peace talks and the arrival of peacekeeping troops."

A JEM field commander said government aircraft had bombed villages close to a rebel-held town in north Darfur on Tuesday, killing six civilians. A Sudanese army spokesman denied the army was escalating attacks and accused rebels of starting the fighting in Haskanita by ambushing government forces.

Ibrahim said if the fighting persisted it would be impossible to attend the talks, adding: "There is a war going on and we would have to fight for our survival."

He said he was calling on the United Nations to step up its pressure on the Sudanese government to stop attacks in Darfur.

Another Darfur rebel group, the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD) said it had repelled a government assault on its position in the village of Korbia, close to the north Darfur town of Kutum. No one was immediately available for comment from the Sudanese armed forces.

Khartoum signed a joint statement with the United Nations last week agreeing to end violence in Darfur, prepare for the peace talks and help deploy of 26,000 U.N. and African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.

REBELS: SIX CIVILIANS KILLED

JEM field commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr said six civilians were killed on Tuesday in bombing raids on villages near Haskanita, and a JEM statement asked aid groups to help bury 500 to 600 government soldiers it said were killed in a failed ground attack on Haskanita after an aerial bombardment.

The Sudanese army spokesman dismissed the rebel report on army casualties as an exaggeration. He said the army had been ambushed and was then forced to call in air support as backup.

"It was a hostile action by the rebels," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There were casualties on both sides. The situation remains unstable."

Reports from rebel groups of the numbers of casualties and prisoners taken during that fighting have varied widely.

U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said 118 aid vehicles had been hijacked by militias and other groups in Darfur since the beginning of the year and that the thefts were "continuing at an alarming rate".

Three displaced people were kidnapped and killed in south Darfur's Kalma camp on Saturday. On Sunday, 20 women from Al-Hamidya camp in west Darfur were detained by an Arab militia as they went to collect firewood but were later released. On Wednesday last week, armed nomads raped three women in Otash Camp outside the southern capital of Nyala.

Meanwhile, ailing senior Darfur rebel figure Suleiman Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Movement's humanitarian coordinator, said he had received a passport and exit visa and would leave for medical care as soon as the United Nations arranged a flight.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in the past 4-1/2 years of violence in Darfur. Khartoum says 9,000 have died. (Aditional reporting by Simon Apiku in Khartoum)

AlertNet news is provided by