The International Criminal Court has sought an arrest warrant for Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, which rights groups have hailed but some analysts warned it could derail the fragile peace process in the country.

The African Union's Peace and Security Council on Monday said it would urge the United Nations to invoke powers granted to it by the ICC's charter to delay any warrant for 12 months, which can then be renewed.

Khalil Ibrahim said his JEM rebel group would no longer recognise AU efforts to mediate a peace process. Djibril Bassole, the joint U.N.-AU Darfur mediator made his first visit to Sudan this week before resuming his post next month.

"The African Union is a biased organisation and is protecting dictators and neglecting the African people," Ibrahim, head of JEM (Justice and Equality Movement), the most militarily powerful rebel group, told Reuters from Darfur.

Sherif Harir, a senior figure from the popular Sudan Liberation Army Unity faction said for any AU mediation to now succeed, it would have to answer why it had taken such a stance.

"The AU by so doing has indicated to the people of Darfur that they can die and it's not as important as protecting a president who has taken power by military coup," he told Reuters.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militia to quell the revolt who now stand accused of atrocities including widespread rape, murder and looting.

Some members of the Arab tribes who had joined the militia became disillusioned with the government and some defected to join the rebels.

Joint U.N.-African Union peacekeepers patrol in Darfur but is only a third of its full strength suffering from delays because of U.N. bureaucracy and government's refusal to allow non-African troops to deploy.

An Arab rebel group called the Army of the Democratic Popular Front also condemned the AU stance, saying it knew ex-militia members who would be witnesses in any Bashir trial who had been ordered by the government to commit atrocities.

"We support the ICC," the group's secretary general Osama Mohamed al-Hassan told Reuters. "We see that Bashir is a war criminal and has direct responsibility for genocide and bombing with military aircrafts or helping militias on the ground.

"Bashir has not given the Sudanese judiciary the opportunity to hold him accountable for war crimes," he added.

The Arab League is urging Sudan to renew national trials for those suspected of crimes in Darfur as part of a plan to resolve the crisis, Arab diplomats say.

Sudan had formed special courts following the 2005 U.N. Security Council resolution referring Darfur to the ICC but those trials fizzled out.

Mutrif Siddig, who represented Sudan at Monday's AU meeting, said the AU would table a resolution at the Security Council to request a deferral.

South Africa, Burkina Faso and Libya are currently members of the Security Council. The resolution would need nine votes and to avoid a veto from any of the five permanent members.

International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes sparking the world's largest humanitarian operation in Sudan's remote west.