"The movement was able to seize the city of Mallit, north of Al-Fashir," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Mani Arkoi Minawi, the secretary general of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) as saying.

The battle lasted all morning, he said, adding that he had no information about casualties on either side.

When asked about the city's importance, he replied: "It's a large city in Sudan, which has major importance for the movement, since it is a link between Sudan and Libya."

On April 25, the movement said that it had captured Al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur State in northwest Sudan, but the government denied the claim.

In a statement to AFP on Saturday, May 10, Minawi promised more attacks against the government of President Omar al-Beshir in Khartoum.

Beshir's government has refused to acknowledge any political motivation for unrest in the states of North, South and West Darfur, blaming it instead on "armed criminal gangs and outlaws," who it says are aided by tribes from neighboring Chad.

The Sudanese authorities have also accused the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) of helping the "outlaws" in Darfur, a charge denied by the SPLA.

The SLA, which first emerged in late February under the label of the Front for the Liberation of Darfur, is not included in the framework of peace talks aimed at ending Khartoum's 20-year-old civil war with the SPLA.

It has never acknowledged any link with the SPLA, but called in mid-March for an "understanding" with other opposition forces fighting the government in Khartoum.