Amid reports that Nur had dismissed Bashir's ceasefire offer, the Sudanese president told another news conference late on Friday some rebel factions were "not ready to obtain peace". The rebels were increasingly fragmented, he added.
One Darfur rebel leader, Suleiman Jamous, was flown out of Sudan on Friday for medical treatment in Kenya after having been under effective house arrest at a U.N. hospital for 15 months.
Jamous, the humanitarian coordinator of the Sudan Liberation Movement, is respected in Darfur and considered a consensus builder who could help peace efforts and unify rebel groups.
"NO RED CARPET"
Sudan's predominantly Arab and Muslim government also signed a peace deal with the mainly Christian and animist south in 2005, ending more than two decades of conflict between the country's northern and southern regions.
The southern region has resisted attempts by the north to impose Islamic law on non-Muslims and the Vatican has formally protested at the treatment of Christians in Sudan. Khartoum denies repression of the mainly Catholic Christian population.
The visit on Friday was Bashir's first to the Vatican but not his first meeting with a pontiff. Pope Benedict's predecessor John Paul II in 1993 used unusually direct language on human rights to the Sudanese leader, who came to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989.
Bashir's visit has also stirred opposition within Italy from local human rights groups and some politicians.
A group of European parliamentarians led by Britain's Glenys Kinnock said it was surprised and concerned that Prodi would welcome a man "primarily responsible for the slaughter in Darfur".
Prodi's government -- which has agreed to send aid and helicopters, train troops and give financial support to peacekeeping operations in the region -- said the visit was useful in underlining the world's concerns on Darfur.
Bashir was asked why his government was not disarming the Janjaweed militias. Khartoum maintains they are outlaws and denies supporting them.
"One should ask who started military operations. We say rebels clearly started military operations," he said. "They forced the government to retaliate to defend itself."
