The outgoing UN envoy to Sudan, who was expelled by the Sudanese government in October, has returned to Khartoum to hand over his duty to his chief assistant, the Al-Sudani daily reported on Friday.

Jan Pronk, special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Sudan, landed at the Khartoum International Airport amid tightened security measures Thursday evening, the report said.

UN spokeswoman in Sudan Radhia Achouri said that the Sudanese Foreign Ministry had agreed on Pronk's return after consultations between the two sides.

Achouri said that the visit would last four days, during which Pronk would hand over his responsibilities to Taye-Brook Zerihoun and visit the UN mission in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.

Ali al-Sadig, spokesman of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, refused to comment on Pronk's visit, saying "we do not want to talk any more on Pronk."

As a condition for his return, the UN envoy was not allowed to hold press conferences or pay a visit to Darfur.

In October, the Sudanese government announced that Pronk was persona non grata after he wrote on a personal website that the Sudanese army had lost two major battles to rebels in the war-torn western region of Darfur and its morale was low.

The Sudanese government had asked the United Nations to send another person to replace Pronk, but the United Nations insisted that Pronk would leave only after his mission expires at the end of this year.

Source: Xinhua