KHARTOUM - SUDANESE government soldiers and militia have forced kidnapped men, women and children into labour and sexual slavery in the war-torn region of Darfur, a coalition of African charities said on Wednesday.

The Darfur Consortium said it had uncovered evidence for the first time that men were abducted and enslaved as agricultural labourers during attacks in western Sudan, where regional conflict is poised to enter a seventh year.

Most of those abducted are women and girls, who are subjected to rape and forced marriage, even used as sex slaves and domestic workers by soldiers in Khartoum, while men and boys are forced into farm work, the study said.

Sudanese officials were not immediately reachable for comment.

'The abductions for forced labour and sexual slavery are being used by the Janjaweed, Sudanese Armed Forces and other allied militias, alongside torture, the killing of civilians, the destruction of villages and other human rights abuses as part of a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing to displace and seize the land' of non-Arabic speaking ethnic groups, the report said.

The area is then repopulated with Arabic speaking people, including nomads from Chad, Niger, Mali and Cameroon, it added.

UN officials estimate that up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since February 2003, when two Darfur rebel groups rose up against the government demanding resources and power.

Sudan, whose government has been heavily criticised in the West for brutally trying to suppress an 'ethnic African' uprising, and unleashing Arab proxy militias, insists the death toll stands at 10,000. -- AFP