Anglican bishops from Sudan, who are part of the meeting of the Lambeth Conference, have issued an appeal to Christians to stand in solidarity with the suffering people of their country.

While the media focus is on in-fighting over sexuality and gender, the July 2008 Lambeth Conference of worldwide Anglican bishops will be challenged to look outwards at the HIV-AIDS pandemic facing millions in Africa.

"We remain committed to work side by side with the churches", the president of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit has told representatives of an international ecumenical delegation in Juba, Southern Sudan.

Amid ongoing fighting and humanitarian crises in several regions of Sudan, the Sudanese people and churches face "tremendous tasks and challenges", an international church visitors on an eight-day solidarity visit have been told.

An international team of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches and ecumenical organizations in Sudan from 26 March to 2 April 2008, it has been announced today.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is amongst Nobel Peace Prize laureates, politicians, artists, writers, and sports figures who have added called for China to abandon its support for Sudan, demanding that this year's Olympic hosts cease to trade with the regime.

Several thousand people marched in Sudan's capital Khartoum yesterday, calling for a tougher sentence for a British teacher imprisoned for insulting religion. But many other Muslims have called for her immediate release.

As schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons' lawyers prepare an appeal against a 15-day jail sentence imposed in Sudan over the naming of a teddy bear, Muslims in Britain have joined in condemning the decision and calling for clemency.

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Campaigners are calling on the US Senate to swiftly pass legislation introduced yesterday by two senators, which is aimed at cutting off economic support to the government of Sudan, in an attempt to halt the deadly regional conflict.