"We attacked the oilfield of Rahaw this morning at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) and took control of the facility" in the south Kordofan region, JEM commander Abdel Aziz Nur al-Ashr told AFP by telephone.

"Our attack is another attempt at telling Chinese companies to leave the country," Ashr said.

The Rahaw facility run by China's Great Wall company produces 35,000 barrels a day and is located northwest of the Hajlil field which JEM attacked on October 23, according to Ashr.

The October attack was on a field in Kordofan run by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNOPC), a consortium involving China's CNPC, India's ONGC, Malaysia's Petronas and Sudan's state-owned Sudapet.

Five oil workers were also kidnapped in that incident.

The rebel group had warned it would target foreign oil companies and Chinese firms in particular because Beijing supplies arms to Khartoum. Kordofan lies to the east of the war-ravaged region of Darfur.

"We have neutralised the site's protection force made up of three battalions and we have destroyed their installations which has halted production," Ashr said.

Khartoum has not yet confirmed the attack.

Ashr said two JEM fighters based in Kordofan had been killed. He also spoke of "several dead and wounded" among the government protection forces.

"We have seized vehicles, artillery and we totally control the facility," he said.

"We are implementing our threat of attacks against foreign companies, particularly Chinese ones, and we will continue to attack," he warned.

"Our goal is for oil revenues to go back to the Sudanese people and that is a strategic plan of our movement," Ashr added.

China is Sudan's top oil buyer and a key weapons provider to the government in a relationship that has drawn much criticism in the West.

Beijing has often been accused of failing to exert pressure on President Omar al-Beshir to stop the bloodshed in Darfur, where conflict has left at least 200,000 people dead and displaced more than two million, according to UN figures.

The conflict broke out in February 2003 when rebels rose up against Khartoum to demand an end to the political and economic marginalisation of their region.

Khartoum's response was to back the Janjaweed militia and give it free rein to crack down on the rebels and their backers.

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