Hundreds of rebels from Sudan's troubled Darfur region reached the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum for the first time Saturday and clashed with security forces, rebel and government officials said.

Sudan's army deployed on the streets of Khartoum, putting up checkpoints and imposing an overnight curfew. An Interior Ministry statement said the curfew was in effect while the government was "dealing with the infiltrators."

State television showed footage of burning trucks and other cars pockmarked by bullets. At least one body was sprawled in a dusty street, covered in cloth, and another victim was slumped in the cab of a jeep nearby.

The clashes come after government warnings that the Justice and Equality Movement, [JEM] one of Darfur's main rebel movements, was going to target Khartoum. Saturday's attack is the closest the rebels have ever gotten to the capital.

After nightfall, Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed told state TV that government troops had successfully expelled the rebels from the city but were still searching for possible remnants of the force.

The government also extended the curfew in Khartoum, saying some rebel fighters have shed their uniforms and are hiding among civilians.

In a statement, the military said that "elements" of JEM had infiltrated northern Omdurman, across the River Nile from Khartoum. The statement said the Sudanese forces had stopped the main advance of the JEM forces in nighbouring Kordofan province but that a few had reached Khartoum.

Rebels vow to fight on

JEM leader Abu Zumam, however, told The Associated Press by telephone that hundreds of his fighters had reached Omdurman and engaged government forces. Gunfire could be heard in the background.

"We entered Omdurman by force," he said, adding that his army of some 700 vehicles planned to take over the state radio building in the city.

JEM once confined its activities to Darfur, where local ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003 complaining of discrimination.

Nearly 300,000 people have died in the Darfur region, and millions have fled to neighbouring countries, other parts of Africa and the rest of the world. An embattled force of peacekeepers, authorized by the UN and made up largely of soldiers from African countries, has had little impact on the situation so far.

The peacekeepers and aid workers are often targets of the Sudanese government-backed militias that are fighting the rebels, and have been heavily criticized for human rights abuses.

Sudan's government insists the conflict is an internal matter and has done little to assist international efforts in support of the victims of violence in Darfur.