Sudanese troops launched air strikes against a Darfur village, contrary to reports Khartoum was withdrawing its forces from the region to meet an African Union ceasefire deadline, an AU spokesman Assane Ba said yesterday.

The AU force commander in Darfur, Nigerian General Festus Okonkwo, told mediators government forces attacked the south Darfur village of Labado on Saturday. Ba told Reuters: ?Things have changed, the latest report from General Okonkwo is that the Sudan government has not complied. He said government helicopters attacked Labado and burned the place yesterday.?

Okonkwo had earlier said that the Sudanese government was complying with the deadline which expired on Saturday.

But the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups said that there was no evidence Sudan was withdrawing its troops in the region, where conflict has displaced 1.6 million people and killed tens of thousands since it first broke out in February 2003.

Ba said the AU was still trying to persuade the feuding parties to stop ceasefire violations and allow a restart of the peace talks which were suspended a week ago. Rebels left the talks to protest a renewed government offensive on their positions.

The AU gave the two sides a 24-hour deadline on Friday to end fighting in the vast arid region after a massive military build-up in Darfur over the last two weeks, saying it would report any further violations to the UN Security Council.

The 53-member body said huge quantities of arms had poured into Darfur and that the government was poised for a major military offensive. The United States, Britain and the United Nations weighed in with warnings to Khartoum and the rebels.

A reuters correspondent saw an Antonov plane land at Nyala airport in southern Darfur on Saturday and dozens of troops disembark. It was not clear whether they were arriving in the region or had been pulled out from other parts of Darfur.