By Khalid Abdelaziz, Jana Choukeir and Nafisa Eltahir DUBAI/CAIRO (Reuters) -The Sudanese army seized full control of the presidential palace in downtown Khartoum on Friday, it said in a statement, in what would be a major gain in a two-year-old conflict with a rival armed group that has threatened to partition the country.

Sudan’s military has consolidated its grip on Khartoum, retaking more key government buildings a day after it gained control of the capital's Republican Palace from a notorious paramilitary group.

At the battle-scarred presidential palace in the heart of Sudan’s shattered capital, soldiers gathered under a chandelier on Sunday afternoon, rifles and rocket launchers slung over their shoulders, listening to their orders.