An American journalist Paul Salopek was released on Saturday in the western Sudanese region of Darfur where he had been detained for more than a month on espionage charges, the Chicago Tribune reported on its website edition.

A judge in Al-Fashir, North Darfur, released Salopek and his Chadian driver as well as an interpreter after a 13-minute hearing, according to the report.

"We are stopping the case and we are releasing you right now. And that is all," Judge Hosham Mohammed Yousif spoke in English to the three persons.

The announcement came a day after U.S. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who promised to release the three men for "humanitarian reasons."

The three were to leave al-Fashir later Saturday and fly to Khartoum with Richardson and his traveling party, including Salopek's wife, Linda Lynch, and U.S. Charge d'Affairs in Sudan Cameron Hume.

Salopek is to return home in New Mexico. His two Chadians companions are to return to their country.

The U.S. journalist, who had won a Pulitzer in 1998 and another in 2001, was arrested in al-Fashir last month and charged with espionage, passing information illegally, writing "false news"and entering Sudan without a visa.

Source: Xinhua