Two hijackers claiming to be Darfur rebels have released all 87 passengers from a Sudanese jet at a remote Libyan airport, but have kept the crew captive for a reported attempt to fly to France.

''All of the passengers have left the plane,'' a Libyan official said from Kufra, where the aircraft was forced to land after being hijacked on Tuesday en route from Darfur's main city of Nyala to Khartoum.

''The two hijackers and the seven crew are still inside. We are continuing to negotiate with them,'' the official said, requesting anonymity. A Sudanese official said there were eight crew on board.

The jet was granted permission to land by Libyan authorities at the isolated World War II-era airport in the south-east of the country, close to the Sudanese border, after it ran short on fuel.

The passengers had reportedly been given water but no food and some fainted when the air-conditioning failed in the searing desert heat. Sudan called on the Libyan authorities to arrest and deport the ''terrorist'' hijackers to Khartoum, saying that Libya was being ''very helpful''.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq said, ''We are condemning first the hijacking of a civilian aeroplane and we are now in continuous contact and consultation with the Libyan authorities in Kufra airport.''

No Darfur movement has claimed responsibility, but the director of Kufra airport said the hijackers belonged to a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army, whose exiled leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur lived in Paris.

Mr Sadiq said, ''It is not clear whether there is one or more [hijacker], or whether they belong to Abdel Wahid.

Mr Nur, whose group was one of two Darfur movements that first rose up against the Arab-dominated Government in 2003, denied any involvement. A commander in the same Sudanese Liberation Army faction, Ibrahim al-Hillo, denied any involvement from within the movement, but suggested the hijackers could be sympathisers of the Paris-based rebel leader.

Kufra airport director Khaled Saseya quoted the pilot as saying, ''The hijackers claim to have coordinated with him [Nur] to join him in Paris.''

Mr Saseya said the hijackers had demanded a flight plan to Paris and fuel.. AFP