Two men convicted of murdering four workers of a Chinese oil company in Sudan have been hanged, the official news agency Suna reported on Wednesday.

The two Chinese and two Sudanese workers were killed in the oil-rich area of Heglig in central Sudan in 2004.

"Federal prison authorities in El-Obeid carried out the sentence of capital punishment by hanging againt two convicted of killing four citizens working with a Chinese oil company in Heglig, including two Chinese," the agency reported.

In 2008, kidnappers killed five Chinese oil workers in central Sudan. The government blamed rebels from the Darfur region, who denied involvement.