By Cynthia Johnston
CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir arrived in Cairo Wednesday, defying an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes in Darfur.
Bashir, on his second trip abroad since the Hague-based court issued the warrant on March 4, is expected to discuss developments surrounding the ICC ruling with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Bashir is unlikely to face arrest in Egypt, which has close ties with its Sudanese neighbour and has called on the U.N. Security Council to suspend the ICC warrant.
Mubarak met Bashir at a Cairo airport before the two headed for consultations, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.
Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol at Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Bashir wanted to show defiance of the ICC by visiting Egypt the same week as a trip to Eritrea.
"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, all the African, Arab and many Asian countries."
MARGIN WITH WASHINGTON
U.S.-ally Egypt fears instability to its south and any disruption to its share of the Nile River, which flows through Sudan. Egypt wanted to signal that it would not follow Washington's lead on Sudan, said Diaa Rashwan, political analyst at the Cairo-based Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
"In Egypt's relationship with the United States, there's always a margin to allow for Egypt's interests," he said. "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."
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.
The Darfur conflict flared when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government, demanding better representation and accusing it of neglecting the development of the region.
Ahmed Hussein Adam, spokesman for Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement, said Egypt's hosting of 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.
The prime minister of Qatar Wednesday said the Gulf state was coming under pressure not to receive Bashir, though he did not identify from which source.
"There are pressures, but you know Qatar well," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, also Qatar's foreign minister, said in remarks broadcast by Qatar-based Al Jazeera television.
"We presented the invitation and I have come to present it again, as the prime minister and foreign minister. We respect international law and we respect the presence of Bashir in Qatar," he said, addressing reporters in Khartoum.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens and Aziz al-Kaissouni; Writing by Will Rasmussen; Editing by Jon Boyle)