Sudan's president in crisis bid

Mr Bashir has been considering the SPLM's requests since Sunday

Sudan's president has reshuffled his cabinet to try to resolve a political crisis created when former southern rebels pulled out of the coalition.

The reshuffle came after Omar al-Bashir's first talks with southern leaders since last week's walkout.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) members quit the cabinet last Thursday, complaining key elements of a 2005 peace deal were being ignored.

But the group says it will not rejoin government until all demands are met.

As well as requesting a cabinet reshuffle, the SPLM wants boundary demarcations and the redeployment of northern troops from the south to be implemented.

There have been fears that the crisis could jeopardise the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the 21-year north-south civil war.

Political will

In the reshuffle, Lam Akol loses his post as foreign minister, a key change demanded by the south.

Southerners are frustrated over delays in implementing the deal

Mr Akol, although a southerner, was seen as too close to President Bashir's northern National Congress Party.

However, SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum told the BBC that officials would not return to work until all grievances had been fully resolved.

"They will not return to work until these outstanding issues - at least the most important aspects that are easy to be done - are corrected," he said.

Under the CPA, the SPLM controls the southern regional government and participates in the national government in Khartoum.

After meeting Mr Bashir on Tuesday, Sudan Vice-President Riak Machar told the BBC that parts of the CPA that had not been implemented included:

• The redeployment of northern troops from the south, especially from Unity and Upper Nile states
• Issues of oil management and marketing
• The final border demarcation which means the division of oil wealth cannot be completed
• Issues to pave the way for a census in 2011, when the south could decide to split from the north.

Mr Riak said the north had until 9 January 2008, the third anniversary of the signing of the CPA, to resolve these issues.

He added that if there was the political will, the crisis could be resolved quickly.

"I believe the president has the political will to do so - it can take half an hour to do it by the stroke of a pen," he said.

The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says President Bashir is expected to meet the southern leader Salva Kiir by the end of the week to resolve the other outstanding issues.

Some 1.5m people died in Sudan's conflict - Africa's longest civil war - which pitted the mainly Muslim north against the Animist and Christian south before the CPA was agreed.