US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Khartoum early on Thursday on a one-day visit to Sudan.

Rice will hold talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice President John Garang on a peace agreement concerning southern Sudan and the humanitarian, security and political situations in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region as well as bilateral relations.

Rice will also meet with acting Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail before paying a visit to Darfur.

Ismail expressed his hope on Tuesday that Rice's visit "will make a step forward toward normalizing bilateral relations."

The two sides will also discuss US political, economic and security sanctions against Sudan, he said.

Ismail announced last week after a visit to Washington that Khartoum and the US would raise the level of their diplomatic representations in a few months.

The United States recalled its ambassador to Sudan Tim Carney in 1997 after Washington imposed sanctions on the country, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Currently, the top US representative in Sudan is a charge d'affaires.

Ties between the two countries had remained frosty since then.

Following a long period of tension, the US-Sudanese relations have improved recently, with a joint committee being established to discuss ways of normalizing the relations.

Source: Xinhua