Thousands of Sudanese protesters have paralysed the capital Khartoum in a demonstration against the proposed deployment of UN troops in the violent Darfur region of the country.

The marchers carried banners saying "Darfur will be the grave of the conquerors" and shouted "Down, Down USA."

African foreign ministers are due to meet on Friday to decide whether to ask the United Nations to take over control of their 7000-strong mission currently monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Darfur.

The African Union lacks both funds and equipment.

After weeks of an intense government-led media campaign against any foreign presence in Sudan, nationalist sentiment is running high.

The newly established pro-government al-Intibaha newspaper last week announced the formation of a new Islamic movement against foreign intervention in Darfur, called the Darfur Jihad Organisation.

On Monday the paper reported the formation of another group, the Blood Brigades.

On Wednesday, Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Husain, the defence minister, addressed a military demonstration in central Khartoum but foreign journalists were detained and escorted from the scene.

"Jihad, victory, martyrdom," the soldiers chanted.

"Our martyrs are in heaven, and we are ready," said the minister.

Husain last week demanded all foreign reporters leave a news conference, accusing them of fabricating the Darfur conflict, which Washington calls genocide.

The United Nations is deploying about 10,000 soldiers to Sudan's south to monitor the implementation of a separate peace deal signed last year to end more than two decades of civil war there.

But the government and opposition parties have all said they do not want that UN force to extend to Darfur.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Sudanese protester holds up a piece of paper in front of a chain of anti-riot policemen during a demonstration in Khartoum against the UN taking over peacekeeping operations in Darfur. (AFP)