Khartoum - Sudanese police on Monday detained an unprecedented 63 journalists for several hours and instructed them to go to court for protesting against draconian censorship, reporters and a lawyer said.

    Scores of journalists rallied outside parliament condemning the censorship which flouts the freedom of expression supposed to be enshrined in Sudan's interim constitution following the end of a north-south civil war.

    Reporters and newspaper editors have stepped up protests against censorship and arrests, staging a hunger strike on November 4 and demanding that new legislation be passed to guarantee a free press.

    The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), southern ex-rebels who share government with the Arab-led north, condemned the arrests and threatened not to approve the 2009 budget unless parliament passed outstanding legislation.

    Police, who had asked the reporters to disperse, ordered all the protesting journalists into a truck and drove them to a police station in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, shortly after midday (0900 GMT).

    "They took us very harshly in one lorry ... They are talking about interrogation. They took mobiles and money," Murtada el-Ghali, the editor in chief of Ajras Al-Hurriya newspaper, told AFP while in custody.

    The arrests came just as parliament approved a nine-member independent electoral commission, in a key step towards holding scheduled free elections due next year despite massive delays in preparations so far.

    Police started to release the journalists about three hours later.

    "The police accuse all the journalists of having an illegal gathering and told them to come tomorrow to the court. No one will stay in the police station - they are now signing the papers to come tomorrow," lawyer Wagdy Salih said.

    "They've started to release some of us. We understand we will be subject to an interrogation and will later go to court," said Ghali.

    A correspondent for pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera said security officers confiscated a tape from his camera that had recorded the arrests outside parliament and he had been summoned by national security.

    More than 150 journalists later met and declared they would down tools on Monday as representatives of 12 independent newspapers announced they would not publish editions on Tuesday in protest at the arrests.

    Human rights activists condemned what they said was "the first time" so many journalists had been detained in one go in Sudan.

    "Journalists are putting pressure on newspaper owners to have action against the law of censorship and the intervention of security. The government wants to threaten the people, frighten them," said activist Nagib Hassan.

    SPLM deputy secretary general Yaser Arman quoted an officer at the station as saying that 63 journalists had been detained.

    "This is a clear violation of the CPA and the constitution. The SPLM condemns this act of aggression against the journalists. This indicates how the democratic transformation is lagging behind," Arman said.

    Unless outstanding legislation linked to the interim constitution is passed in the current session of parliament, "SPLM MPs will not endorse the budget of 2009, which was submitted today to the parliament," he said.

    Among the outstanding legislation are laws guaranteeing press freedom, in a country where security officials inspect editions of every newspaper nightly.

    The United States condemned the arrests and called for an end to media censorship as part of the CPA, particularly in the run-up to elections.

    "The US government condemns today's detentions and continues to deplore infringements by the government of Sudan upon freedom of the press and expression," said the embassy in Khartoum.

    Editors who resist censorship risk having their publications banned outright or confiscated from distribution offices.

    On November 8, national security banned two newspapers from publishing for 24 hours after Ajras Al-Hurriya and fellow daily newsman Ray Al-Shab organised a three-day, self-imposed ban in protest at censorship.