KHARTOUM (AFP) - Saudi Arabia denied permission to travel through its airpace on Sunday to a plane carrying Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to the swearing-in of the new Iranian president, Khartoum said.

The plane had to turn back.

"The Saudi authorities refused to give the plane carrying President Bashir permission to cross their airspace," said Emad Sayed Ahmed, the presidential press secretary.