Khartoum - Britain and the European Commission have urged Sudan to return hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of assets they funded that were seized by Khartoum during a mass expulsion of humanitarian agencies.

Sudan said Tuesday it had acted within regulations when it took the assets from ousted groups, and said it now had the right to re-distribute the seized funding to other humanitarian programs as it saw fit.

Sudan expelled 13 foreign aid groups and closed three local organizations in March, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir to face charges of masterminding atrocities in Darfur.

Expelled organizations, including Oxfam and two branches of Medecins Sans Frontieres, said Khartoum seized equipment, stores and cash, accusing them of passing information to the court -- a charge the organizations deny.

The European Commission and Britain, who are major donors to relief efforts in Sudan, told Reuters many of the seized assets were paid for by their taxpayers and had been targeted at specific programs shut down by Khartoum.

Both organizations said they wanted the assets that they had donated back so they could choose how to redeploy them to other humanitarian projects in Sudan.

Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs Abdel Baqi al-Jailani Tuesday dismissed their claims as "illogical" saying he was not bound by any direct contract with the donors.

"The donors may have had specific agreements with specific NGOs (non-governmental organizations or aid groups). But I had nothing to do with those agreements.

"According to our law, if an NGO is expelled its assets should be redistributed to other NGOs working in the field ... They (the donors) don't have the right to control the assets."