Sudan's president to visit Egypt despite arrest warrant

Cairo, March 25 (DPA) Sudan President Omar al-Bashir will visit Egypt Wednesday despite an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), an Egyptian official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told DPA that al-Bashir will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss developments after the ICC decision.

Wednesday's visit will be al-Bashir's second trip abroad since the arrest warrant was issued, after his brief visit to Eritrea Monday.

Sudan had earlier said that al-Bashir would ignore the warrant and travel to Doha later this month to attend an Arab summit.

Neither Qatar nor Eritrea, like Sudan, have signed up to the ICC and have no obligation to arrest al-Bashir. Egypt is a member of the 22-nation Arab League, which said it will take no action over the arrest warrant.

On March 4, the ICC accused al-Bashir of genocide and other war crimes carried out in the Sudanese province of Darfur.

The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by the conflict that started in 2003.