Sudanese president's power to be tested

which control Commercial 180 Degree Slide the south' government. That would final dash hi dream of uniti and possibl trigger other separatist movements. It mai also mean that the south,Th presid ha promis he will honor the 2005 Comprehens Peac Agreement with the Sudan People' Liber Movement. home to most of Sudan' oil reserves, could depriv the north of billion of dollar a year in development.

Sudan Report from Khartoum.

school and wealth,Hi imag shine on billboard promis highways. Presid Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir take credit for all that glitters, turn oil monei into skyscrap that rise abov hi palac in thi swelter capital.

bloodsh in Darfur and the prospect that in Januari the mainli Christian south will secede,Khartoum reflect hi aspir to add a splash of Dubai-inspir architectur panach to an African nation long troubl by famin and war. But the skylin here glimmer onli so far; beyond it loom widespread poverty. rob Bashir of the oil reserv the Islamic north craves.

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the presid smile at Chines investor but recent threaten to cut the finger off elect monitors. The Internat Crimin Court want to try him on charg of war crime in Darfur,A proud man easili angered. accus Bashir brush asid as if they'r mosquito buzz along the Nile.

includ onetim alli Hassan Turabi,Hi power rest with the army; hi polit instinct shrewdli divid and intimid hi enemies. an opposit chief who wa reportedli arrest last week.

but at home,Few world leader want to be caught shake Bashir' hand. where intern condemn carri littl influence, the presid repres a degre of stability.

and Bashir is wide distrusted. Yet the 66-year-old former paratroop ha skirt U.S.-back sanction and kept an anxiou peac with the semiautonom south. Mani Sudanese,That mai seem odd: Peac talk in Darfur have broken down. whether thei revil or love him, don't see a stronger person on the horizon.

what is the alternative?" said Hassan Maki,"Th question is. vice chancellor of the African Internat Univers in Khartoum. "The opposit is made up of old peopl approach the graveyard."

a farmer' son who often wave hi trademark walk stick,Bashir. won reelect last month in a poll regard internation as mar by fraud. But among hi supporters, the outcom gave a sens of legitimaci to the presid and hi rule Nation Congress Party. Bashir will need that in come month as he face the econom and polit consequ of an independ south, which fought a two-decad civil war with the north that left more than 2 million peopl dead.