Sudan geared up for fresh fighting on Tuesday as government and rebel negotiators headed home after the collapse of landmark talks to end Africa's longest-running civil war. Sudan's government suspended the negotiations on Monday after rebels seized the strategic southern town of Torit, their biggest victory since capturing the town of Kapoeta in June.

"I have declared a general mobilization and the armed forces have been directed to move in all directions until Torit, Kapoeta and other areas are recaptured," Sudan's government-owned Al-Anbaa newspaper quoted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as saying.

A Sudanese official said the government negotiating team began heading home on Tuesday from the peace talks in Machakos, about 80 km (50 miles) from Nairobi in Sudan's southern neighbor, Kenya.

"Our delegation has already left Machakos," an official at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi told Reuters.

Rebel delegates also left the talks following the government's announcement that it would not resume negotiations until it was convinced rebels were serious about ending the war in which some two million people have died.

"They are on their way coming back, all of them," an SPLA official said.

The rebels, based in the south, which is largely animist with a small percentage of Christians and Muslims, have been fighting since 1983 for more autonomy from the Muslim-dominated north.

REBELS MAKE NEW DEMANDS AT TALKS IN MACHAKOS

The latest round of negotiations, which began in mid-August and had been due to end in mid-September, aimed to build on an outline agreement reached in July and to work toward a cease-fire and final deal.

Analysts viewed the talks as the best chance yet of ending the 19-year-old conflict.

But Sudan's charge d'affaires in Kenya, Ahmed Dirdeiry, accused the SPLA of backtracking on agreements made at the first round of talks in July. He said no date had been set for more talks.

"We don't want to be prophets of doom, but we want to make very clear that the negotiations will be an exercise in futility if the SPLA/SPLM think they can just backtrack on what they previously agreed," he told Reuters in Nairobi.

A statement issued by the embassy said the rebels had agreed at the July talks on the importance of preserving the country's unity but were now proposing a confederation composed of two states, one in the north and one in the south.

The SPLA had also reopened the issue of state and religion by calling for a sharia-free capital and wanted to expand the borders of the south, the statement said.

The rebels had "spoiled the atmosphere of the talks" by continuing their military offensive. The capture of Torit and Kapoeta showed they were "still committed to the military option and not willing to negotiate in good faith," it added.

The Sudanese government put the country on a war footing after the SPLA captured Torit on Sunday. Both sides have accused each other of launching military strikes during the talks.

Bashir called on all sectors of the Sudanese people to join training camps and move to the operations areas, Sudan's al-Anbaa newspaper reported.

State television on Monday night showed members of the Popular Defense Force, which was formed in 1989 to help the army fight the SPLA, and groups of policemen arriving at Khartoum airport to fly to Juba, southern Sudan's main town.

PHOTO CAPTION

"I have declared a general mobilization and the armed forces have been directed to move in all directions until Torit, Kapoeta and other areas are recaptured," Sudan's government-owned Al-Anbaa newspaper quoted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as saying.