EL FASHER, Sudan (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir danced before supporters on a visit to Darfur on Wednesday bristling with security and dismissed accusations that he masterminded genocide in the region.

Travelling in convoy, backed by a helicopter and soldiers, police and national security driving in vehicles mounted with machine guns, Beshir arrived in El Fasher, the old Darfur capital, greeted by 5,000 to 6,000 supporters.

Civil servants, tribesmen, students, men on camels and horses cheered the head of state, pledging allegiance and slamming a bid from the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for Beshir's arrest over suspected war crimes.

School pupils were recruited for the rally and one government employee said staff were ordered to go to disused land under the searing sun, where a grinning Beshir danced to nationalist music, jabbing the air with his stick.

His visit comes a week after ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Beshir of instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.

Members of those groups, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa, some of whom belong to Beshir's National Congress Party, also attended the reception rally.

His regime is trying to persuade the UN Security Council to freeze possible legal proceedings should ICC judges actually issue an arrest warrant, on the grounds that it could jeopardise peace prospects.

An Arab League official said Sudan had agreed to set up special courts to try alleged human rights abuses in Darfur which will be monitored by the United Nations, African Union and Arab League.

"They agreed to establish special courts," Hisham Yussef, chief of staff for Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, told AFP in Cairo.

However, if Sudan holds viable trials of those accused of crimes in Darfur, the ICC automatically drops its charges.

Sudan has in the past promised to try alleged Darfur war crimes, but credible trials have failed to emerge.

The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

The war began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.

Around 300 people made homeless in the five-year Darfur conflict, whom officials said were returning to their villages, also shouted support and called for peace outside El Fasher airport, said an AFP correspondent.

"What Ocampo said about Darfur is lies... We have to find a solution to the Darfur crisis," Beshir told them, after leaving behind a military honour guard at El Fasher airport where he laughed and shook hands with local leaders.

"I came here to Darfur to say one thing. That every IDP must return back to their village and then the government must supply social services," he said.

His first visit to Darfur since 2007, Beshir will spend two days visiting the three state capitals in the vast arid region -- El Fasher, in the north, Nyala in the south and El Geneina in the west.

Beshir is scheduled to inaugurate development projects and hold talks with state government officials, local leaders and political party representatives.

He was accompanied by top Western and Arab diplomats, including US charge d'affaires Alberto Fernandez and British ambassador Rosalind Marsden.

"We're not sure what Beshir will be announcing, or if he'll be announcing anything, but if he does we should be there at the appropriate level," the British embassy told AFP.

"Of course it does not signify a change in our policy with regards to the ICC," the embassy added.

Britain and the United States sit on the UN Security Council which can defer for one year, renewable, any ICC investigation or prosecution with a majority of nine votes, including the concurring votes of all five permanent members.

"It makes him look politically very good if the people of Darfur welcome him and observers see thousands of people rushing to welcome him. This will give him a new image in the international community," said journalist Adil el-Baz.

The government is in full control of the three main towns of Darfur, which are heavily protected from war-torn areas in the open desert and scrub.

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