(Adds JEM comment, paragraphs 6-7)

By Andrew Heavens and Alaa Shahine

KHARTOUM, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Kidnappers have snatched nine Chinese oil workers in central Sudan, the third such incident of the past year in the oil-producing region, the Sudanese government and diplomats said on Sunday.

The government blamed a Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), for the kidnapping. Diplomats, however, said the captors were probably local tribesmen.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Raymond Yu said the kidnappers abducted the workers on Saturday in South Kordofan, source of a large part of Sudan's oil wealth. China is the biggest foreign investor in the African country.

Ali Youssef, head of protocol at the Sudanese foreign ministry, told Reuters the kidnappers were believed to be members of the "Kordofan sector" of JEM.

"Initial information also indicates that the hostages and the captors are still in the South Kordofan area," he said. "Security forces are trying to chase them."

El-Tahir el-Feki, a London-based JEM official, said he could not immediately confirm whether the group had carried out the attack, but said JEM has forces "around the oil regions."

"We carried out operations in the oil regions before and warned the firms and individuals that whoever is there is considered a legitimate military target," he said.

The group kidnapped five oil workers -- an Egyptian, an Iraqi and three Sudanese -- in October 2007. It said at the time the move was a warning to oil firms it accuses of funding Khartoum through oil revenues. The men were later released.

The government and rebel groups routinely trade accusations about human rights abuses in Darfur, which borders South Kordofan and where a conflict has raged since 2003. The rebels say oil firms help fund Khartoum's war effort.

Diplomats in Khartoum said the kidnappers were probably members of the same tribal group that seized four Indian oil workers and their driver in the region in May. The captors were described at the time as disaffected locals.

Yu said it was too early to identify the kidnappers.

DANGEROUS AREA

One diplomat familiar with the matter said the nine Chinese men and two Sudanese drivers were seized from a small oil field while doing contract work for the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC).

The company is a consortium led by China's CNPC, which also includes India's ONGC <ONGC.BO>, Malaysia's Petronas [PETR.UL] and Sudan's state-owned Sudapet.

"One driver was released and handed over a note by the captors demanding a settlement through a share of oil production," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The source said locals had ransacked a Chinese camp in the same area two weeks ago and taken everything "including the beds and bedsheets".

"This is a dangerous area. This could happen again."

The plains of South Kordofan are inhabited by Arab nomads and other tribes which have been protesting about oil revenues being taken out of the region. They say the underdeveloped region has seen little of the oil wealth that has filled government coffers in Khartoum and the semi-autonomous south.

According to GNPOC's website, the consortium produces more than 300,000 barrels of crude per day (bpd) in Sudan's Blocks 1, 2 and 4. Sudan produces about 500,000 bpd of crude.

Walid Khadduri, a respected Arab oil analyst, said the kidnappings made work in the Sudanese oil industry more dangerous but added it would not halt operations.

"Look at Nigeria, oil workers have been kidnapped and killed ... but the investment has not stopped," he said.

The tribal group that kidnapped the four Indian workers in May later released one man and a Sudanese driver, while two others escaped. The fourth man, who also escaped from his captors but never returned to base, is believed to be dead. (Writing by Alaa Shahine; editing by Andrew Roche)

AlertNet news is provided by