An overnight curfew has been imposed on Khartoum after Darfur rebels attacked a suburb of Sudan's capital today, state television said.
Heavy gunfire was heard in the west of Khartoum and helicopters and army vehicles headed towards the area, witnesses said. It is the closest the rebels have come to the centre of Khartoum.
"We are announcing a curfew in the state of Khartoum from 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) until 6 a.m. starting from today May 10th, 2008," an army spokesman said on state television.
Darfur rebels fought battles with Sudan's army in the North Kordofan province bordering Khartoum on Friday and today, according to a local government official and witnesses.
Many in Khartoum hunkered down at home and the streets were filled by people rushing to their houses.
Earlier, the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it was strengthening its forces in Kordofan but not attacking government troops to avoid causing civilian casualties.
But a local government official said the heavily armed rebels had scattered after an army counter-attack.
Sudan tightened security in the capital late on Thursday because of the fighting and the army accused Chad today of backing the rebel.
"The government and the armed Darfur movements are engaged in battles and there was bombing by planes and the rebels have scattered," said Abdel Majid Abdel Farid, a member of the administrative council of North Kordofan's eastern town of Hamrat al-Wizz.
He said the Darfur rebels had spread out on Friday all over the state in an "unprecedented manner" carrying very heavy weapons.
The reports of bombing came from civilians north of his town. "The civilians here are very, very scared," he said.
It was difficult to obtain civilian casualties figures in the area as fighting was continuing, he said. JEM said it was tightening its control on Kordofan.
"We are deploying our forces as and when we see fit to," said senior JEM official al-Tahir al-Feki. "We are making a total deployment and getting a grip on Kordofan.
"But we are not engaging in any activities that would result in displacing civilians."
The army told the state news agency SUNA in a statement it had repulsed an attack from the Chadian army which used heavy artillery in the Chad-Darfur area of KashKash late on Friday.
Darfur's JEM have attacked government forces in Kordofan in the past in hit-and-run raids.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million killed in five years of fighting in Darfur after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms accusing central government of neglect.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for a junior government minister and an allied militia leader accused of war crimes. Khartoum refuses to hand them over and blames the Western media for exaggerating the conflict.