UPDATE 1-Nigeria president wants rebel leader freed in days

* Yar'Adua orders militant's release without delay

* Militant group sabotages Chevron oil pipeline

* Rebels threaten further attacks on oil sector

(Adds MEND attack on Chevron pipeline, paragraph 4, 11-12)

By Felix Onuah

L'AQUILA, Italy, July 10 (Reuters) - Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua wants Henry Okah, on trial for gun-running and treason, to be freed in the next few days after the rebel leader welcomed the government's amnesty offer, a spokesman said on Friday.

Both sides still need to negotiate terms of the deal before Okah, the suspected leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), can be released, his lawyers told Reuters on Thursday. [ID:nL9680295]

If Okah is freed, it would raise hopes that MEND would agree to lay down its weapons and halt an offensive that has battered Africa's largest oil sector since May.

The militant group said late Friday it sabotaged an oil pipeline recently repaired by U.S. oil major Chevron (CVX.N) in the Niger Delta and threatened further attacks. [ID:nLA437845]