UN says Darfur dead may be 300,000;Sudan denies

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 (Reuters) - The estimated number of people who have died in the five-year-old conflict in Darfur may have risen to as much as 300,000 compared with earlier estimates of 200,000, a top U.N. official said on Tuesday.

But Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, told Reuters this figure was grossly exaggerated. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, Editing by Jackie Frank)