EL-FASHER, Sudan - Sudan criticised the United States and European Union on Tuesday for failing to impose sanctions on Darfur rebel groups believed to be behind the deadliest attack on African Union troops in the region.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig said the "most likely" culprits behind Saturday's attack on the Haskanita base were a splinter group of either the rebel Justice Equality Movement (JEM) or the Sudan Liberation Army's Unity faction.

The African Union said 10 of its personnel were killed, 10 wounded and three were missing after the raid. Leaders from both JEM and SLA Unity have denied responsibility for the attack.

Sudanese Justice Minister Ali al-Mardi told Reuters the international community should have punished the rebel groups that have refused to sign peace deals with the government to end the four-year conflict.

"I am talking about the big powers, in particular the USA and the EU," he said.

"What happened in Haskanita is a direct result of what the international community has failed to do. If they had exerted pressure on them, this attack would not have happened."

The EU Presidency on Tuesday condemned the attack on Haskanita saying it was a "deliberate violation" of existing ceasefire agreements and U.N. Security Council Resolutions. It called for an investigation into the ceasefire breach but stopped short of calling for any sanctions.

The African Union mediated a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels in May 2006 but only one of three rebel negotiating factions signed the deal. Since then, rebels have split into a dozen factions.

The United States said late on Monday it was prepared to impose fresh sanctions on whoever ordered the worst single assault on African Union peacekeepers since the mission came to Darfur in 2004.


"BANDITS"

Sadig said rebels behind the attack were "more like bandits than military groups".

"The international community should come together to punish whoever was responsible," he said.

The African Union said on Tuesday it had established some clear leads in its investigation into the attack, but was waiting for more firm evidence before publishing the findings.

"Investigations are under way but they are not complete," said spokesman Noureddine Mezni. He said 10 soldiers wounded in the attack were being treated in Khartoum.

Officials at the African Union's headquarters in Addis Ababa said no African countries were planning to pull troops out of Darfur as a result of the attack, which killed seven Nigerians and one soldier each from Senegal, Mali and Botswana.

Nigerian presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said Nigeria's top military commander and army chief would visit Darfur to assess the situation and make arrangements for the bodies of the dead Nigerians to be repatriated.

A joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force with 26,000 police and soldiers is due to deploy in Darfur next year to help the under-funded and ill-equipped 7,000-strong AU force in the remote region.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the government of neglect. Khartoum disputes the figures.


ELDERS IN DARFUR

A delegation of statesmen, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, arrived in El-Fasher in Darfur on Tuesday to urge peace in the region ahead of talks mediated by the United Nations and AU in Libya on Oct. 27.

At a meeting with officials of South Sudan in Juba on Tuesday, the former rebels who negotiated their own peace deal with the government in Khartoum told the elders the fractured rebels in Darfur presented one of the biggest threat to the peace process in western Sudan.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir said without a unified position and single delegation to meet the government at the peace table in Libya, no inclusive deal would be reached.

But he blamed Sudan's ruling National Congress Party for dividing the rebels.

"The policy of divide and rule has been tried in Darfur. The NCP want to break them up into small pieces ... they divide those who are still strong," he added.

Reports of unrest have continued to emerge from the region. The U.N. reported three armed raiders shot and killed a man on Monday while trying to hijack an aid agency's vehicle in the West Darfur town of El Geneina.