ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) – Sudan’s president denies that his regime is orchestrating genocide in the troubled western region of Darfur.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague indicted Omar al-Bashir last month on genocide and war crimes charges. Prosecutors say militias unleashed by his government have killed some 300,000 ethnic Africans. More than 2.5 million have been displaced.

Al-Bashir says those numbers are inflated. “Genocide like the International Criminal Court claims is nonexistent.” He was speaking at a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey, during his first trip abroad since the indictment.