KHARTOUM (Reuters) -andnbsp;Sudan's army said rebels had infiltrated into the troubledandnbsp;Darfurandnbsp;region from theandnbsp;Central African Republicandnbsp;but denied these were Islamist fighters fleeing a French advance in Mali, state news agency SUNA said on Wednesday.
With air strikes and ground forces, France has pushed Islamist rebels out of cities and into desert and mountain hideouts in a four-week operation to prevent Mali becoming a base for attacks in Africa and Europe.
Western governments fear that al Qaeda-linked fighters will cross African borders as they seek refuge.
On Friday, a Sudanese rebel group and a Netherlands-based Darfuri radio station said fleeing Islamists from Mali had arrived in theandnbsp;western Darfurandnbsp;region, scene of a decade-long insurgency.
But Sudan's army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told SUNA an unspecified number of rebels based inSouth Sudanandnbsp;had enteredandnbsp;South Darfurandnbsp;state via Sudan's remote border with the Central African Republic.
"These forces have nothing to do with the claims from the Darfur movements," he said.
He said the government in Khartoum had instructed the security authorities in South Darfur to destroy the rebel forces, about whom he gave no further details.
Sudan andandnbsp;South Sudanandnbsp;accuse each other of supporting rebels on each other's territory.
The neighbours, mutually deeply mistrustful after fighting one of Africa's longest civil wars, have failed to implement a September agreement to secure their disputed border after coming close to war in April.
The rule of law has collapsed in large parts of Darfur since mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government in 2003.