Caroline Hawley reports from Khartoum

The streets of Khartoum are calm - eerily calm, some say. Shops are open and people are getting on with their lives. But behind closed doors, there is intense political manoeuvring as the political crisis in Sudan continues.

Late last Sunday, President Bashir appeared on state-run television to declare a three-month state of emergency. He also dissolved the 400-member National Assembly, which was led by his former ally Hassan al-Turabi, who helped him take power in a military coup in 1989.

After the coup, Mr Turabi became the main ideologue of Sudan's Islamist government, and although for much of that time he held no formal post, he was the real political force behind it.

But the alliance between Sudan's two most powerful politicians turned to rivalry. Mr Turabi had, for some time, been frustrating the work of the executive, and in recent weeks the power struggle between the two men deepened.

Opposition support

President Bashir said he acted to put an end to what he called the "chaos" that had resulted from having two decision-makers. The move came just two days before parliament was due to vote to curb his powers dramatically, and reduce him - in essence - to a figure-head. But although unconstitutional, his action has been widely welcomed.

On the streets, there is almost unanimous support for President Bashir's move against Mr Turabi, who is widely disliked because of his Islamist agenda. The opposition has also welcomed the side-lining of Mr Turabi, who they see as their main enemy.

"It should have happened a long time ago," said a prominent member of the opposition Umma party. "The government was paralysed."

One businessman described Mr Turabi's treatment of President Bashir as the political equivalent of slaughtering him with a blunt knife.

Although President Bashir is not personally popular, he is regarded as the lesser of two evils. The opposition also believes that President Bashir will now be forced - under internal and international pressure - to move ahead with Sudan's tentative political liberalisation programme.

"It is a positive thing," said opposition leader, Ghazi Suleiman. "The country is now in the hands of the army, and the army - at least - is a national institution."

Political weakness

But observers say President Bashir needs to move fast if he is to make up for his political weakness, now that he is no longer allied to Mr Turabi.

"It is possible that if he does not move quickly on this, he could be vulnerable to a coup from within the army," a Western diplomat said.

"The army very much wants to speed up the reconciliation process and end the war in the south, and large parts of it no longer believe in the government's Islamic agenda."

Since the emergency was declared, the government has contacted members of the opposition, assuring them that it is genuinely in favour of national reconciliation.

President Bashir also appears to have gone out of his way not to aggravate tensions in what is an extremely explosive situation.

He has made sure that members of the dissolved parliament continue to be paid. He has not arrested Mr Turabi, and the security forces are keeping a remarkably low profile for a country in a state of emergency.

But there is a real fear that this could now be the calm before a possible storm. Observers say Mr Turabi is not the sort to take what has happened lying down.

Possible violence

He has strong support in some quarters, particularly among Islamist students and in rural areas. And although he says he wants to try to fight by legal and political means, no-one here is ruling out violence.

Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of security forces.

One diplomat said his last tally put the number at 14 and they range from the "Popular Defence Forces" sent to fight the war in the south, intelligence services, to the Public Order Police, who ensure that people are not drinking alcohol and that women are dressed in the "appropriate" Islamic fashion.

Although President Bashir is thought to command the loyalty of most of the security forces, some militias are accountable to Mr Turabi.

Mr Turabi, who is regarded as a wily operator, has probably calculated that he would almost certainly lose any violent show-down.

But if the situation did get out of hand - and many fear that it will - it could be extremely nasty. According to one prominent businessman it would "make the civil war in Beirut look like a picnic".