Sudan has admitted its troops fired on a joint U.N.-African Union supply convoy in Darfur earlier this week, but says the incident was a mistake.

Sudanese media Thursday quote Defense Ministry officials as saying the army was not informed the convoy would be moving through the area, and that the peacekeepers were initially mistaken for rebels.

Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Mohamed (file photo)

On Wednesday, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations insisted rebels from the region were behind the attack.

Monday's attack on the peacekeeping convoy took place as it traveled between Umm Baru and Tine in western Darfur.  A civilian driver was shot and remains in critical condition.

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday condemned the attack on the convoy, though the council president said members are not in agreement about who carried it out.

Meanwhile, the Swedish and Norwegian foreign ministers said in a joint statement Wednesday that they have dropped plans to send about 400 troops to Darfur, because of opposition by the Sudanese government. 

The troops were intended as part of an engineering mission.

Sudan has insisted that the new U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur be mostly African.

The joint force took over peacekeeping duties in Darfur from a smaller AU mission on December 31.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.