ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court for an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the most senior figure pursued by the court since it was set up in 2002.

Bashir is the first sitting head of state charged by an international court since Liberia's Charles Taylor and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic.

The Sudanese leader dismissed the charges and said the ICC had no jurisdiction in Sudan.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said that besides the thousands killed by Sudan's armed forces, 2.5 million others were subjected to a campaign of "rape, hunger and fear" in refugee camps where he said genocide continued "under our eyes."