Sudan says it uncovered plot involving U.S. diplomat

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan has arrested seven opposition figures accused of plotting an armed uprising with a U.S. diplomat, a government newspaper reported on Thursday.

"The security authorities have arrested a group of the leadership of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during a meeting attended by the political official in the American Embassy in Khartoum, who were plotting an internal uprising supported by armed action," Al-Anbaa said.

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U.S. diplomats could not immediately be reached for comment.

The daily said the group was found in possession of a plan on how to support the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) waging a 17-year-old autonomy struggle in the south.

The SPLA is loosely linked with northern opposition parties in the NDA, some of whose members are in Sudan.

Al-Anbaa said the group planned to pass information to the SPLA to enable it to "strike and seize towns and sabotage installations with American backing and support."

The newspaper said the U.S. diplomat was not detained, but security authorities were interrogating the rest of the group.

It identified them as Ali al-Sayed, a lawyer and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party; Mohamed Suleiman, a trade unionist; Joseph Ukel, NDA secretary-general inside Sudan; Al-Tigani Mustafa; Mohamed Mahjoub; Mohamed Widallah, a representative of the Baath party; and Jimmy Wongo, a member of the Union of Sudan African Parties.

It did not name the U.S. diplomat, but the privately owned Akhbar al-Youm identified him as a political officer.

Al-Anbaa said the group was seized on Wednesday night at a house in al-Amarat, a wealthy suburb of Khartoum.

Relations between Sudan and the United States have been more than usually frosty since the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice visited rebel-held areas without a visa last month.

This week Sudan's Islamist government lodged a fiercely worded complaint with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan over the visit, in which Rice drew attention to the controversial issue of slavery in Africa's biggest country.

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