(Adds Darfur rebel commander in Libya, paras 8-11)

By Aziz el-Kaissouni

KHARTOUM, Feb 21 (Reuters) - One of Darfur's main rebel factions complained on Wednesday it had not been invited to talks in Libya between Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Darfur rebels who have rejected a shaky peace deal.

The peace talks, expected to start on Wednesday, are aimed at trying to entice a rebel coalition, the National Redemption Front, to join a 2006 peace deal between Khartoum and one faction of the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement.

But the commander of a separate Darfur splinter group, which agreed last week to respect a truce and professes readiness to resume peace talks with Khartoum, said he had not been informed of the talks in advance, and dismissed them as a charade.

"We were not included in the efforts exerted by Libya and Eritrea. We had no invitation or foreknowledge of the talks," said Jar el-Neby Abdel Karim, commander of a breakaway arm of the Sudan Liberation Movement that is not a signatory to the peace accord.

"If there is an initiative like this, they should have informed us and invited us. ... We wouldn't have refused. But we needed to have a clear picture of the situation."

Also due at the talks are Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki, U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim.

Gaddafi is expected to try to persuade the NRF to join the peace deal for Darfur, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from homes since 2003.

Meanwhile, another rebel SLM splinter group, which is also not a signatory to the 2006 peace deal, said it had gone to Libya to observe but did not intend to engage in talks.

"We're not here to attend talks. We came in response to an invitation ... to hear their perspectives on Darfur," faction commander Ahmed Abdel Shafi told Reuters.

He said he would listen to proposals for a regional initiative, but his priority was to unify Darfur rebels.

"We're organising our affairs and then we'll decide how to return to the political process," Abdel Shafi said.

REBELS DIVIDED

Abdel Karim said Bashir did not understand the reality of Darfur's rebel movements. Tens of thousands of Darfuris rejected the May 2006 peace deal because they want more political representation, compensation for war victims and guarantees that militias allied with the government will be disarmed.

"He (Bashir) can't have a summit and say he's dealing with the Darfur issue when he doesn't even know who he's dealing with. We'll have to assume this is a stalling tactic, or a media frenzy, and not for the good of Darfur and the people of Darfur," Abdel Karim said.

The NRF, a coalition of rebels that rejected the May peace deal, fragmented over whether to accept a truce negotiated last month by Bill Richardson, governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico, to which Abdel Karim's group ultimately signed on.

Divisions among Darfur's rebel factions have been a factor in delaying peace talks with Khartoum. On Sunday, Abdel Karim said a conference aimed at uniting rebel factions would be postponed to allow a group that broke away from the NRF to join.

The conflict in Darfur has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The bloodshed has spilled over to Chad and Central African Republic.

Bashir has resisted pressure to allow deployment of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers to support 7,000 African Union troops in Darfur. He says the United Nations may give money and logistical help to a hybrid force.

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