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Reuters.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese armed forces clashed with a major rebel group near the border with Libya and Chad in the troubled Darfur region, an army spokesman said on Tuesday.

Mainly non-Arab rebels launched almost a decade ago an insurgency against Khartoum which responded with a counter-offensive that killed about 300,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Fighting has fallen from 2003-2004 levels but ongoing violence and rebel divisions have been the main obstacles to end the conflict in the vast Western region.

The Sudanese army fought fighters from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Monday in north Darfur where Sudan's border meets Libya and Chad, army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told Reuters.

He said the army killed one rebel and destroyed several cars loaded with weapons and fuel that JEM fighters had smuggled from Libya.

JEM could not be immediately reached for comment, while a spokesman for international peacekeepers UNAMID said he had no information on any clashes on Monday.

It was the first fighting reported by the army in Darfur since JEM said earlier this month its leader Ibrahim Khalil had returned from his refuge in Libya.

The fall of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has deprived Darfur rebels of a safe haven as Gaddafi used to support some rebels.

Sudan is worried Darfur rebels may smuggle in weapons circulating in Libya.

JEM was one of two Darfur rebel groups that revolted in 2003, demanding more autonomy for the underdeveloped arid region. It is now considered the most powerful military group.

JEM has refused to sign a Qatar-brokered peace agreement which Sudan signed with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJR), an umbrella of small rebel groups which analysts say has little support on the ground.