The Sudanese government on Wednesday refuted claims by a conservation group that poachers are killing elephants in thousands to supply tusks to Sudan's booming ivory trade.

A press statement from Sudan's Embassy in Nairobi said the country has made various efforts to abide by international agreements to halt the trade in a bid to save the fragile populations of elephants from being completely destroyed.

The Sudanese government said insecurity in the south and western part of the country, and its vast borders with neighboring Chad, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a series of civil wars made the protection of wildlife impossible, have contributed to the illegal trade.

"Trade on elephant ivory was banned internationally in 1998. Since then, no exports were made by the government except through illegal smuggling," the statement said.

In February, investigators from an international conservation group, Care for the Wild International, found more than 11,000 ivory trinkets -- ranging from pendants to cigarette holders -- openly on sale throughout Sudan's capital.

Esmond Martin, who conducted the survey, said government troops were responsible for killing elephants or aiding the transportation of ivory from the country's borders to the bazaars of its capital.

However, the Khartoum government denied the allegations and insisted it has changed its legislation to abide with global agreements since the ban was enforced.

"The government has seized several pieces of ivory destined for Egypt. There is a considerable amount of ivory which has been impounded by the custom authorities in Khartoum and in Port Sudan and several raids have been carried out to control the local markets in the Khartoum capital," the statement said.

There are no reliable current statistics for elephant populations in Sudan. But most recent figures suggest numbers declined from 133,000 in 1979 to 40,000 in 1992.

Overall, Africa's population of elephants halved between 1979 and 1989, largely as the result of poaching.

Today, there are estimated to be 400,000 to 660,000 elephants on the continent.

Numbers have recovered in some southern African nations since 1990, when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species banned the international trade in ivory.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2005)