Sudan has called on the United Nations Children's Fund to retract a statement it made last week that there was irrefutable evidence of a continuing slave trade in the country.
The deputy foreign minister, Hassan Abdin, is reported to have told UNICEF's representative in Khartoum that the future of the government's relations with the agency depended on it withdrawing the statement.
He said that all forms of slavery were outlawed in Sudan and negative practices arising from the civil war should not be considered slavery.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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