Al-Bashir in Saudi Arabia, his deputy in Baghdad

Media sources in Khartoum related the visit of the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to Saudi Arabia to discussing the American peace role, with the Saudi crown prince, in Sudan, in addition to bilateral relations file and means of consolidating them.

The one day visit held today by President al-Bashir to Riyadh, was preceded by a message carried by the Sudanese foreign minister to the Saudi crown prince including complete explanations to the recent political developments in Sudan and results of the missions of the U.S. Special Envoy for Peace in Sudan John Danforth and the trends of the Sudanese foreign policy.

These sources talked about Sudanese confirmation on the Saudi crown prince readiness for any personal role to eliminate what is described as "dryness" in the American- Sudanese relations.

These sources quoted the Sudanese Minister of External Relations Mustafa Osman Ismail to this effect that the role of the Saudi crown prince is not new in the Sudanese file as he had contributed to opening Sudanese- American contact channels.

Just one day after the visit of the Sudanese president to Saudi Arabia, his First Vice President Ali Othman Mohamed Tahal starts a visit to Baghdad on top of a Sudanese delegation for the meetings of the joint ministerial committee between the two states. This visit was scheduled and preceded by preparatory meetings. The new thing in this visit is that there is a proposal to increase the level of the joint ministerial committee to a higher committee chaired by the two states' vice presidents.