By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Sudan's armed forces said the continued presence of the United Nations' top envoy in Sudan posed a danger to the army after comments he made about two major army losses in battles with Darfur rebels.

Jan Pronk said on his Web site that the army had suffered two major defeats, generals had been sacked and demoralised soldiers had refused service in North Darfur in recent weeks.

The Sudanese military statement said Pronk was intervening in the affairs of the armed forces and cooperating with the rebels to wage a psychological war against the army.

"We think that the presence of Jan Pronk in Sudan represents a military danger to the Sudan armed forces in ... carrying out its duties," said the statement, released on Friday.

The statement accused Pronk of undermining the army by "casting doubt on the ability of the Sudanese Armed Forces to protect the Sudanese people and defend the state".

One army source elaborated saying the armed forces were asking President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a military man himself, to take the "necessary procedures" against Pronk, which could include asking him to leave the country.

In New York, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Pronk remained on the job in Khartoum.

"We see these media reports claiming that some have declared him persona non grata. As far as we know here, as far as the (U.N.) mission (in Sudan) knows, he is not persona non grata, so he continues to operate as the secretary-general's special representative in Sudan," Dujarric told reporters.

"He is in Khartoum as far as I am aware," he added.

NORTH DARFUR BATTLES

Mostly non-Arab rebels began a guerrilla insurgency against central government in early 2003 complaining of neglect of the remote western region.

Khartoum armed militias to quell the revolt. Those militias stand accused of a campaign of rape, pillage and murder which experts say killed 200,000 and Washington calls genocide.

Khartoum denies genocide and the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the arid region.

A new rebel alliance, the National Redemption Front (NRF), formed after a May peace accord, signed by one rebel faction and the government. The NRF reject the deal saying they want more political representation and compensation for war victims.

The NRF renewed hostilities in June in the Kordofan region neighbouring Darfur. Since then battles, mostly in North Darfur, have continued.

The United Nations and the African Union, monitoring a widely ignored truce in the region, have reported the government has used planes to bomb in North Darfur in defiance of a Security Council resolution banning offensive flights.

Pronk's blog, www.janpronk.nl, said army morale was low in North Darfur after two defeats at the hands of the NRF.

Khartoum has rejected a U.S. and British-supported U.N. Security Resolution to send 22,500 U.N. troops and police to replace the struggling and cash-strapped African Union mission and quell the fighting in Darfur.

Bashir calls the resolution a Western invasion and attempt to recolonise Sudan. Critics say he really fears U.N. troops would arrest any officials likely to be indicted by the ICC.

Bashir refused to meet the new U.S. envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, who left on Friday after a week-long mission. This was Bashir's second snub of a U.S. official this year.

EU PRESSURE

At a meeting of European Union leaders in Finland on Friday, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said the "alarming situation in Darfur" was discussed briefly.

"We are working hard to convince the government of Sudan that the U.N. operation is the only viable option," he said.

But the leaders did not respond publicly to an appeal by 120 genocide survivors -- including some who lived through the Nazi Holocaust to others who experienced Cambodia's "killing fields" -- who addressed them in an open letter asking for EU sanctions against Khartoum to stop the Darfur conflict.

The United Nations said in a statement dated Thursday that among the people of Darfur malnutrition levels have stabilised in 2006 and overall food security has improved slightly.

But malnutrition among children under 5 has risen to 13.1 percent from 11.9 percent last year, below the 15 percent threshold used to define an emergency.

Access to clean water has improved, to 72 percent from 62 percent, but the level of food security depends on location within the vast region, the statement said.

Only 51 percent of Darfur's 6 million people have been able to cultivate their land this year, the same number as last year, it said. Two million of them are living in camps because of the insecurity in the countryside. (additional reporting by Darren Ennis in Finland, Evelyn Leopold in New York)

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