Khartoum helps US uncover Bin Laden allies

Sudan has taken steps to crack down on members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network still in the country, United Press International (UPI) reported on Friday. UPI quoted US officials as saying that Sudan's intelligence ministry had handed over the names and locations of individuals in Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda (Al-Qa'idah) network to US intelligence services in Sudan. "There are anti-American groups that were still around, and they have shut them down. We pointed them in a direction in a few cases to people we knew were still in the Al-Qaeda network," UPI quoted a senior US administration official as saying on Thursday.

UPI quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Khartoum had given the US access to its banking system to assist Washington to choke off financial support to terrorist groups. "US operatives have been given free access to different parts of the country. They have engaged in very detailed issues," UPI quoted Sudan's ambassador in Washington, Khidir Haroun Ahmed, as saying.

The US State Department last week announced it would investigate reports that Bin Laden - widely regarded as the prime suspect behind the the 11 September terror attacks in the US - and his associates had interests in Sudan's trade in gum arabic, a substance used in the manufacture of soft drinks and other products. Before his expulsion from the country in 1996, Bin Laden had several assets in Sudan, and had access to the airport in Port Sudan, UPI said.