Wadi Anka, Sudan ? In the sands of a dry riverbed in northern Darfur, rebel leaders squatted with their weapons, drinking mint tea and trying to forge a united front in their struggle for independence from Sudan.

Wearing flowing white robes or motley uniforms, commanders with the Sudan Liberation Army got together in this desolate, arid spot to agree on a central rebel command for Darfur, a vast area of western Sudan.

While the rebels have fought successfully against the Sudanese military and armed ethnic Arab militias in small units, they have been divided along tribal and regional lines. Now, they said, they’re determined to work together to force the government in Khartoum to come to terms.

“We’ve tried before, but this is the first time we’re really serious about it,” said Saleh Adam Itzahk, a senior rebel commander from the Jebbel Midob mountains in northeast Darfur. “The war is dragging on because of our disunion. And we’ve been cheated of our rights too many times because of it.”

The field commanders, who started coming here from across the region last week, were surrounded by bodyguards armed with automatic rifles and claimed they left hundreds of fighters back home.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a separatist commander, shouted orders into a satellite phone. A pro-government militia had entered his sector of the remote western Jebbel Moon mountains that morning, and he was frantically organizing a counterattack. In December, a similar raid killed 53 villagers, including 27 children, according to a U.N. report.

“The international community must finally recognize that we represent the vast majority of Darfur,” said Jar al-Naby, a Sudanese Liberation Army spokesman and a rebel field commander, in the midst of the gathering. “Look around you.”

An Associated Press reporter who attended this clandestine summit traveled for days through rebel-held territory to reach the site. During the journey, he saw little evidence of Sudanese government forces – despite Khartoum’s claims that the rebels are cornered in a small patch of desert.

Neither was there any sign of the government-backed militias, called the janjaweed, which have rampaged through ethnic African villages in Darfur, burning, killing and helping drive millions from their homes.

The rebels – joined by tribal chiefs, refugee camp and even teachers – gathered despite the government’s efforts to stop them.

The chief goal of the desert conference is to avoid a repeat of the Darfur peace agreement signed last May in Abuja, Nigeria, by the Sudanese government and a single rebel leader – who was under intense international pressure to come to terms.

Most rebels and civilians in Darfur rejected the deal, saying it provided no guarantee the government would halt the atrocities by janjaweed militias.

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003, when the ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-led central government, accusing it of discrimination and neglect.