President Thabo Mbeki departs on a working visit to Sudan Tuesday, to discuss developments towards reaching peace in the troubled north African country.

The President, supported by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, will visit Khartoum and Juba in Sudan from Tuesday to Wednesday.

He will hold discussions with his Sudanese counterpart President Omar el-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir.

"President Mbeki's visit to Sudan takes place within the context of South Africa's priority to encourage the full implementation of the African Union (AU)-United Nations (UN) agreement on the hybrid force for Darfur and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the North and the South," South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Issues on the agenda of discussions between Presidents Mbeki and el-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir are expected to include, among others:

* the situation in Darfur within the context of the implementation of the AU-UN agreement on Darfur

* the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and the South and

* post-conflict reconstruction and development in Sudan.

South Africa is the chairperson of the AU Committee on Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development in Sudan.

President Mbeki is expected to depart from Sudan on Wednesday, ahead of his official visit to France where he is expected to hold discussions with his French counterpart President Jacques Chirac on Thursday.

Further to this, Sudan's ministry of Foreign Affairs said the United States' Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, will arrive in the country Thursday for a three-day visit.

The US official will hold talks with Foreign Minister Dr Lam Akol on bilateral relations and on developments in Sudan including the Darfur issue, in which the US has been pressing Khartoum to allow United Nations peacekeepers to be based in that region.

The American diplomat is to visit to Darfur as well as South Sudan and meet a number of government officials there.

- BuaNews-NNN