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ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's main militant group called off a three-month-old ceasefire in the Niger Delta on Saturday and threatened to unleash "an all-out assault" on Africa's biggest oil and gas industry.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for years of attacks on oil facilities, said it could no longer trust the government to negotiate demands for greater control of the region's natural resources.

The threat of unrest comes at a time when President Umaru Yar'Adua has been out of the country receiving medical treatment for more than two months and there is uncertainty over who is in charge of state affairs.

"It is sufficiently clear at this point in time the government of Nigeria has no intentions of considering the demands made by this group for the control of the resources and land," MEND said in a statement emailed to media.

"All companies related to the oil industry in the Niger Delta should prepare for an all-out onslaught against their installations and personnel," it said.

Attacks by MEND on Nigeria's oil and gas industry in the past few years have prevented the OPEC member from producing much above two-thirds of its capacity, costing it about $1 billion a month in lost revenues.

Nigeria's light crude is popular with U.S. and European refiners as it is easily processed into fuel products and previous attacks by MEND helped lift global oil prices to record highs near $150 a barrel in 2008.