Riyadh - In his fifth trip abroad since an international court issued a warrant for his arrest, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's official press agency reported.

The Sudanese president will perform the Omrah, a form of Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said. The trip is the latest in a regional tour al-Bashir began soon after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity on March 4.

New York  - Sudan on Tuesday agreed to let the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur take over the assets of 13 expelled international relief groups.

The decision was reached between the UN, the Sudanese government and AU representatives in El Fasher, Darfur, where the peacekeeping force is headquartered.

The three sides met to review progress in the deployment of the UN-AU force in Darfur, which is currently at 67 per cent of the authorized ceiling of 30,000 military and civilian personnel.

Washington - Barack Obama's newly named special envoy for Sudan, retired Air Force major general Scott Gration, met the US president, Sudan human-rights advocates and members of Congress Monday before travelling this week to the region.

"I can't think of somebody who is better equipped to travel to Africa, the continent where he grew up, and communicate to Sudan a couple of important points," said Obama, who has pledged to keep pressure on Khartoum to end the conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur, describing the humanitarian crisis there as "urgent."

Tripoli - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qadhafi agreed Thursday to focus on humanitarian and social means to reach peace in the western Sudanese Darfur region.

After their meeting, the leaders issued a joint statement saying that they agreed on promoting the Doha dialogue between the Sudanese government and rebel factions in Darfur to solve the conflict with social means.

New York  - Khartoum's expulsion of major international humanitarian groups from Darfur has caused serious deficiencies in healthcare services and shelter for hundreds of thousands of people in the region, the top UN humanitarian coordinator said Thursday.

New York  - Sudan said Thursday it will not allow the 13 humanitarian organizations expelled from the troubled Darfur region to resume their work there.

"It is not reversible because we did it for our national interests," Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Mohamad told reporters while the UN Security Council was holding a closed-door discussion on the situation in Darfur.