Sudan is prepared to allow new aid agencies into the restive Darfur province to replace those the government kicked out last month following the indictment of President Omar al-Bashir, US senator John Kerry said, reported the Sudan Tribune yesterday.

Kerry, chairman of the US senate foreign relations committee, arrived in Sudan for a three-day visit on Wednesday and met several top officials.

He said "some of that capacity for humanitarian assistance will be restored".

Sudan expelled 13 organisations in early March, including Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam GB, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on al-Bashir for alleged war crimes.

The United Nations has warned that expelling the agencies, which were providing supplies to millions of Darfurians, could create a humanitarian catastrophe.

The president accused aid agencies of spying for the ICC. The ICC accuses al-Bashir of genocide and other war crimes carried out in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribesmen took up arms against what they call decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government. The UN says up to 300 000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced. Sudan claims only about 10 000 have died.

Kerry's visit represents a potential thawing in relations between the two nations, which have been tense for years.

In 1997 the US imposed sanctions against Sudan for harbouring Osama Bin Laden. - Sapa-dpa