Eight Sudanese aid workers have been killed in southern Sudan after their vehicle was attacked and burned near the border with Uganda.

The attack happened on Thursday, about 5km (3 miles) from the Ugandan border near the town of Parajok, according to Eigil Larsen, an official of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).

There were 11 people in the vehicle when it was set on fire, he said.

Two of the dead worked for NCA, one for the Africa Inland Church, three for the Episcopal Church of Sudan and two for the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Organisation, the humanitarian arm of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army.

Mr Larsen said the team was in the area to assess the conditions of the people who have been displaced by fighting in the 16-year civil war in southern Sudan, and were traveling in a vehicle clearly marked with the NCA logo and name.

He said Ugandan rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army, who have their main base in the region, are believed to have carried out the attack.

Earlier this month, two Sudanese working for the aid agency Care International were killed in the same region while on their way to set up a health clinic.

SPLA officials denied claims their fighters were involved in the earlier attack.

For years, Uganda and Sudan have accused each other of harbouring rebels fighting their respective governments but recently they took steps to mend their relations and halt all support for the rebel groups.

In a bid to end the attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army, the Ugandan Government last year offered an amnesty to all rebel fighters if they handed in their weapons.

Ceasefire extended

The 16-year-old civil war in Sudan's mainly Christian or animist south has killed an estimated 1.5 million people in fighting and war-related famine.

On Friday the Sudanese Government announced it was renewing its commitment to the civil war ceasefire, following an SPLA announcement to the same effect the day before.

The renewal of the ceasefire, which was due to expire on Saturday, will allow humanitarian organisations to transport aid to people suffering shortages of food and medicine in southern and eastern Sudan.