Sudan tells U.N. relief effort must leave Kenya

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan on Tuesday accused aid groups of providing funds and supplies to rebels fighting the Khartoum government and said it had asked the United Nations to move its relief operations from Kenya to southern Sudan.

The independent al-Ayam newspaper reported that Gutbi al-Mahdi, minister of social planning, had on Monday "notified the U.N. representative in Khartoum on the government's wish to transfer the activities of the southern sector (of Operation Lifeline Sudan) which is launched from Lokichokio in Kenya to within Sudan."

Operation Lifeline is a United Nations-led relief effort operating out of Kenya and Khartoum, and supplies aid to civilians in both government and rebel-held areas in war-ravaged southern Sudan.

"They have undertaken financing operations for the army of the rebels and have provided all their supplies," he was quoted as saying in the independent al-Sharia al-Siyassi on Tuesday.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last week accused aid groups of helping the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and threatened to end their operations. An SPLA statement on Saturday denied the claims, repeated by Mahdi.

The independent al-Rai al-Aam quoted Mahdi saying the SPLA did not cultivate areas under its control because of food, military and logistical assistance from aid groups.

Over 1.5 million people have died in conflict and war-related famine and disease in Sudan's 17-year-old civil war, which has broadly pitted the Moslem and Arab north against the mostly animist and Christian south.

U.N. official Ruth Mountain is in Khartoum for talks with government officials on what they called "violations of relief agreements by non-governmental organizations."

The official Sudan News Agency SUNA said the United Nations had agreed there was a need to review relief operations in south Sudan. There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials.

The United Nations said in March it would tighten flight procedures after it ferried pro-government militia leaders on a relief plane, triggering a week-long hostage crisis.

Mahdi said Sudan wanted to forge a new relationship with Operation Lifeline based on "respect for national sovereignty and transparency," al-Rai al-Aam reported.

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