Beshir to visit Egypt on Wednesday: Egypt

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur, will visit Egypt on Wednesday, an Egyptian official said.

"Beshir will arrive on Wednesday and will meet President Hosni Mubarak at the end of the morning," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

In Khartoum, a senior official neither confirmed nor denied that the claim.

When asked by AFP about the report, Samani al-Wasila, minister of state for foreign affairs, said only that "there is nothing to stop al-Beshir from visiting any country."

The unexpected and formally unannounced visit would be Beshir's second trip abroad since March 4, when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On Monday, Beshir went to Eritrea. The country's president, Issaias Afeworki, had invited Beshir on March 11 to express solidarity with him after the warrant was issued.

Like all Arab countries except for Jordan, Egypt is not a party to the treaty creating the ICC, according to the court's web site.

The ICC does not have a police force and calls on signatory states to implement warrants. Even so, all United Nations member states are urged to cooperate with the court.

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died -- many from disease and hunger -- and 2.7 million been made homeless by the Darfur conflict, which erupted in February 2003.

Khartoum puts the death toll at only 10,000.

Many African and Arab states, along with key Khartoum ally China, have condemned the ICC move and called for the warrant to be suspended.

Beshir faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes. He is the first sitting president to be issued with a warrant by the ICC.

Egypt and the Arab League have rejected the warrant, saying it threatens peace talks in Sudan, and vowed to lobby the United Nations Security Council to suspend the court's proceedings.