RIYADH, March 28 (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan Bashir told Arab leaders on Wednesday the United Nations should limit its role in the Darfur region to logistical support to African troops.

"We do not want confrontation with the international community," Bashir told a summit of Arab leaders in Riyadh.

"What we are trying to do is make sure troops in Darfur are African in look and leadership, while the United Nations would undertake financial, technical and logistic support for these forces."

Bashir has long resisted the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Sudan's western Darfur region, where the United States says a genocide of the local population has taken place through government support for nomadic militia groups.

But Bashir faces international pressure to give in.

A U.N. plan foresees a small force of U.N. military and civilian forces moving into Darfur, followed in the second phase by about 2,500 more U.N. troops, and finally by another 10,000 soldiers to form a hybrid force.

"The United Nations should concern itself with pushing the peace process between the parties to the conflict," he said, adding that talks with the United Nations had "gone beyond" a Security Council resolution last year calling for international forces to be sent to the vast desert territory.

Experts estimate that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled their homes since conflict flared in 2003 when rebel groups took up arms against the government, accusing it of neglect. Khartoum says 9,000 people have died.

Sudan, which has been accused of hindering aid to Darfur, signed an agreement with the United Nations on Wednesday to boost humanitarian work in the region.

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