Sudan's former southern rebel leader John Garang arrived in Khartoum on Friday, a day before the sworn-in ceremony of the new Sudanese presidential council.

He was received at the Khartoum international airport by a group of high-level Sudanese government officials led by First Vice President Ali Othman Mohammed Taha.

Garang, head of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement (SPLM), will be sworn in on Saturday as first-vice president and Taha will be sworn in as second vice president.

Omar al-Bashir will remain as Sudanese president.

The Saturday's ceremony will be witnessed by several heads of state and senior officials, including US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.

The civil war in Sudan started in 1983 when the SPLM took up arms and fought for self-determination in the southern part of the country.

The conflict had reportedly left some two million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and diseases.

The Sudanese government and the SPLM signed a peace deal in January to end the longest civil war in Africa.

Carnival mood has gripped the Khartoum capital to welcome the ex-rebel leader following the peace accord.

Source: Xinhua