Visiting the Chinese capital for a summit that brings together 48 African leaders, Bashir also thanked China for its support in the face of western pressure over a humanitarian crisis that he United States has labelled genocide.

Sudan has flatly rejected a 22,500-strong UN peacekeeping force for Darfur, aimed at bolstering about 7,000 under-funded, African troops on the ground, saying it amounted to colonialism.

"As regards the UN peacekeeping force, we decided that with such an army moving in to our country, the impact is going to be the same as what's been happening in Iraq," Bashir told a news conference.

The comparison was not immediately clear as there are no UN peacekeepers in Iraq and the March 2003 US-led invasion did not have the explicit approval of the UN Security Council.

Bashir said only 10,000 people had died in Darfur compared with around 655,000 in Iraq following the March 2003 US-led invasion -- a figure from a study by US and Iraqi public health teams.

Most international estimates put the death toll from Sudan's vicious civil conflict, which has pitted mostly non-Arab rebels against the Arab-dominated government and Janjaweed militia, at tens of thousands, and say it has displaced over 2 million.

All sides have been accused of grave human rights violations. Despite mounting international concern over Darfur, China, which has imported over 14 million barrels of oil from Sudan this year alone and has lucrative business interests there, has been a strong and vocal supporter of Khartoum.

Meanwhile, attacks in West Darfur have killed at least 63 people, half of them children, as rebels on Friday accused Khartoum of remobilising Arab militia after suffering two military defeats on the Sudan-Chad border.

"The government have begun mobilising the Janjaweed widely, especially in West Darfur, because they want to clear the area and move north along the border and defeat us," said Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, a leader of the National Redemption Front (NRF).