HIGHLIGHTS: Defense Minister: 'Army Capable of Retaking Torit'||Senior Government Officials Leave for War Zone||Khartoum Dispatches Envoys to Libya, Chad, Nigeria and China to Explain Position on Suspended Peace Negotiations|| STORY: The government sent another battalion of Islamist militiamen from Khartoum to southern Sudan as part of a military mobilisation aimed at recapturing a stronghold from the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

The SPLA's capture of Torit last week prompted Khartoum to withdraw from peace talks in Kenya that had raised hopes for an end to the 19-year civil war between the Arab and Muslim north and the mainly Christian and animist south.

The government staged a ceremony for the departure of a battalion of more than 100 mujahedeen (holy warriors), all volunteers from the Popular Police Force, from Khartoum airport to the southern Nile town of Juba.

From Juba, the militia men will travel to Eastern Equatoria state to help retake the garrison town of Torit, some 120 kilometers (72 miles) further east, and other areas which fell to the SPLA last week, officers said.

"The army is capable of retaking Torit and the capture of this town will be the first step towards retaking all the regions controlled by the SPLA," Defense Minister Bakri Hassan Salih said at the ceremony.

"The mujahedeen will teach the SPLA a lesson it will not forget," he added.

But the separatists were scornful.

"We are ready for them," said Samson Kwaje, the Nairobi-based spokesman of the SPLA. "We will be waiting for them on the Juba-Torit road."

Kwaje said the SPLA had dislodged 8,000 government troops from Torit and that the soldiers were now camped at a place known as Liria, 70 kilometres (45 miles) away.

Torit itself was now calm despite occasional bombs dropped by government planes in the surrounding areas, he said.

The Popular Police Force is among several Islamist militias or paramilitary groups made up of volunteers heading south since last week. The government set up such groups when it seized power in an Islamist-baced coup in 1989.

Another is the Popular Defense Forces, whose coordinator Kamal Eddin Ibrahim said here Saturday that the mujahedeen would "continue pouring into the region until every (inch of territory) occupied by the rebels is liberated."

The Popular Police mujahedeen were also seen off by Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein and senior police officials.

Ibrahim, the popular defense coordinator who returned from the Juba staging area on Saturday, told reporters that army troops and mujahedeen on Friday destroyed two rebel tanks.

"The deluge of mujahedeen will sweep away all agents and traitors until the country enjoys peace and stability," said Ibrahim. "Peace will be achieved in spite of the teeth of the rebellion."

Senior government officials were also reported to have left for the war zone, including Science and Technology Minister Al-Zubair Beshir Taha, who led a battalion of mujahedeen, and Sudan's former UN mission chief Al-Fatih Urwa, who left with his rifle.

There were no other details on Urwa's mission.

A number of states in the federalist Sudan have contributed to the war effort by sending truckloads of food and other rations, while also donating funds to the military campaign.

Ministerial envoys were set to leave Sunday for Libya, Chad, Nigeria and China conveying messages from President Omar al-Beshir explaining the government's position on the peace negotiations in Kenya that collapsed after the SPLA captured Torit on September 1.

The latest bout in fighting between Khartoum and SPLA comes despite the framework deal they worked out in July to end a civil war which has cost nearly two million lives, as a result of fighting and war-related famine.

Under the deal reached in Machakos, Kenya, the north has said it would grant the south self-rule for six years, after which the southern population would vote on whether it wished to remain part of Sudan or secede

PHOTO CAPTION

Khartoum sent another battalion of Islamist militiamen to southern Sudan as part of a military mobilisation aimed at recapturing a stronghold from the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA's capture of Torit last week prompted Khartoum to withdraw from peace talks in Kenya that had raised hopes for an end to the 19-year civil war between the Arab and Muslim north and the mainly Christian and animist south.