Uganda has sent a team to southern Sudan to get details on the helicopter crash in which Sudan's First Vice President John Garang is said to have lost his life.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Julius Onen told Xinhua by telephone on Monday morning that the Ugandan team had already left for southern Sudan.

"We dispatched a team to southern Sudan this morning to find out details on the reported helicopter crash in which Sudan's First Vice President John Garang was involved," said Onen.

He noted that the team has not yet sent any information to Kampala.

Earlier a State House statement from Kampala said that Garang left Uganda on Saturday afternoon by a Presidential Helicopter-MI- 72, heading for his base at a new site in southern Sudan.

Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir in a speech on state television Monday confirmed the death of Garang.

Garang, the head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, became the first vice president only three weeks ago following a peace deal that ended 21 years of civil war between north and south Sudan.

Source: Xinhua