Sudan on Thursday agreed to ease restrictions to humanitarian aid access throughout Africa's largest country after a meeting with the Canadian prime minister in the Sudanese capital. Sudan agreed in May to cut through layers of red tape for aid equipment and to guarantee aid workers visas to try to solve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The United Nations says the Darfur crisis is the worst in the world, with more than 1.6 million people driven from their homes during a 22-month-old rebellion. Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail Osman, asked if the eased Darfur procedures would apply to the whole of Sudan, said: "Yes, the president promised that any part of the Sudan which is in need of humanitarian support -- there is no problem for the government to apply the same." He declined to say when the restrictions would be eased but said the president had taken the decision and only technicalities were left to organise. The Canadian special envoy for peace in Sudan, Mobina Jaafer, said visiting Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin welcomed the move. "We were very pleased that the president went further and said that the fast-track humanitarian permits for Darfur they would try to implement the same all over Sudan," Jaafer told a joint news conference with Osman. --More 2311 Local Time 2011 GMT
