Sudan's Beshir awaited in Mauritania

Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir, who is wanted under an international arrest warrant, was awaited Monday in Mauritania for a visit, sources close to the authorities said.

Main avenues and the surroundings of the Nouakchott airport were bedecked in the colours of the two countries, an AFP correspondent reported.

State media did not announce this official visit, which is the first by a foreign leader since President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was sworn into office in August after elections.

The official AMI news agency simply said that Sudanese Foreign Minister Tidjani Saleh Fadil was in Nouakchott.

According to the independent local press, Beshir will spend three days in Mauritania, where he was due to arrive on Monday afternoon, and he will have a series of meetings with Ould Abdel Aziz, focused on bilateral cooperation.

Sudan invests in Mauritanian telecommunications by way of Chinguitel, a company set up in 2007 and whose licence was bought by the Sudanese company Sudatel, allied to private Mauritanian interests, for 100 million dollars (70 million euros).

Beshir's trips abroad have been surrounded by tight security since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him in March for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's strife-wracked Darfur region by 2003.

Mauritania is not a signatory to the Treaty of Rome that laid the foundations for the ICC.