PARIS, May 11, 2008 (AFP) - France on Sunday condemned an armed assault on the Sudanese capital Khartoum which it said showed that an urgent resolution to the Darfur crisis was needed.
    "This serious attack demonstrates the urgency of resolving the crisis in Darfur and the destabilizing effect of the lack of progress in this direction," a foreign minstry statement said.
    The Sudanese government said it had repulsed Saturday's assault which it blamed on Justice and Equality Movement rebels, allegedly backed by neighbouring Chad, a former French colony.
    Sudan and Chad accuse each other of backing rebels seeking to topple their respective regimes.
    Chadian troops in February pushed back an attack on the Chadian capital Ndjamena by rebels allegedly backed by Sudan. French troops provided fuel, food, aerial intelligence and Libyan ammunition to the Chadian army during that incident.
    The conflict in Darfur, a vast region in the west of Sudan bordering Chad, has claimed the lives of as many as 300,000 people and displaced 2.2 million, according to the UN.
    It has raged since 2003, when rebel groups demanded a greater share of the country's resources.