Sudan's Bashir visits Egypt despite ICC warrant

CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir held talks in Cairo on Wednesday with Egypt's president, defying an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

Bashir, on his second trip abroad since the court in The Hague issued the warrant on March 4, discussed developments surrounding the ICC ruling with Mubarak before returning home.

Bashir risks arrest when he leaves Sudan because of the ICC warrant, but neighbouring Egypt had not been expected to take any action against him. Cairo has close ties with Khartoum and has called on the U.N. Security Council to suspend the warrant.

Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol at Sudan's foreign ministry, said Bashir, who also visited Eritrea this week, had wanted to show his defiance of the ICC.

"The president has said before that the arrest warrant is not worth the ink that it is written with -- and this is the message of this trip," he said.

"The president will continue to travel to countries that are against the ICC -- and there are many of these countries."

Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor said the discussions had also focussed on the humanitarian situation in Darfur after Sudan expelled a number of foreign aid agencies there.

International experts say at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.7 million driven from their homes in almost six years of ethnic and political fighting in Darfur in western Sudan. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.

Violence has risen sharply since the ICC issued the warrant. In Darfur, armed raiders broke into a refugee camp before midnight and set a fire that killed at least two people and injured four, peacekeepers said on Wednesday.

The fire destroyed nearly a quarter of the camp, home to about 6,000 people, and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) blamed state-backed militias for the attack.

EGYPTIAN TIES

U.S. ally Egypt is keen to maintain close ties with Sudan, and fears the ICC warrant could have destabilise its southern neighbour, with which it shares strategic Nile river waters as well as longstanding cultural and political links.

"This is an issue of Egyptian national security and we have our perspective that we won't change, regardless of how Europe and the United States feel about it," said Diaa Rashwan, analyst at Cairo's Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

Rashwan added that Egypt wanted to signal it would not follow Washington's lead on Sudan, and that Egypt's ties with Washington left "a margin to allow for Egypt's interests."

Ahmed Hussein Adam, spokesman for Darfur's rebel JEM, said Egypt's hosting Bashir was "in violation of international law and (U.N.) Security Council resolutions."

The Sudanese government said shortly after the ICC decision that Bashir would defy the warrant by travelling to an Arab summit in Qatar next week but Sudanese officials have released statements raising questions over the wisdom of the trip, prompting speculation Sudan may send another representative.

Qatar's prime minister said the Gulf state was coming under pressure not to receive Bashir, though he did not say from whom.

He told reporters in Khartoum: "We presented the invitation and I have come to present it again...We respect international law and we respect the presence of Bashir in Qatar."

(Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens and Aziz al-Kaissouni; Writing by Will Rasmussen; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)