Mubarak in Sudan to please al-Bashir

KHARTOUM, Sudan, April 4 (UPI) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited Sudan Tuesday, a week after boycotting an Arab summit in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

The three-hour visit occurred under tight security measures, and was aimed at easing tense Sudanese-Egyptian relations and appeasing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was upset by Mubarak's absence at last week's summit and an earlier African conference held also in Khartoum, an official source told United Press International.

The source said Mubarak's lack of confidence in security measures to protect him in Khartoum was the undeclared reason for his absence from the two summits.

However, his attitude angered the Sudanese government and his lightning visit was mainly aimed at reducing tensions triggered by what Khartoum regarded as a non-supportive Egyptian stance on Darfur province when it was debated at the Arab summit.

Opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, a former ally of President al-Bashir, told an Arab satellite television a week before the Arab summit was held in Khartoum that high-ranking Sudanese officials planned Mubarak's aborted assassination attempt in Addis Ababa in 1995, leading to strained relations between the two neighboring Arab countries.

Tuesday's visit is the third by the Egyptian president to Sudan since al-Bashir took over power through a military coup d'etat in 1989.

Mubarak visited Sudan for the first time in 1991 and then in 2003. All visits have been brief and none lasted more than a few hours.