The most important change will be to the post of foreign minister, currently held by Lam Akol, which will go to Deng Alor, the official said.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement recalled its ministers from the cabinet on Thursday over what it called Khartoum's failure to implement a 2005 peace deal between north and south Sudan that ended a decades-long civil war.

Under the agreement, the SPLM controls the southern regional government and participates in the national government in Khartoum.

The movement said it would be willing to rejoin the national government if Beshir meets its demands which focus on getting Khartoum's troops out of the south and resolving the fate of the disputed oil district of Abiye.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman arrived in Sudan on Wednesday for a one-day visit aimed at defusing tensions between the two sides, the Egyptian foreign ministry said.

The diplomats met SPLM leader Salva Kiir, who is first vice president in the national government, in the southern capital of Juba and were due in Khartoum later on Wednesday.

The SPLM had also cited Beshir's refusal to reshuffle the southern ministers in the cabinet, including Akol, as pivotal in its decision to pull out.

Akol, a southerner considered by the SPLM to be close to Beshir's National Congress party, will become minister of cabinet affairs.

There was no official reaction from the SPLM but a representative of the movement told AFP that the new ministers were part of a list it had submitted to Beshir.

Mansur Khaled, a northerner and member of the SPLM who was advisor to late SPLM chief John Garang, will become minister of foreign trade.

Khaled has held ministerial office on four occasions, including the post of foreign minister in a previous government.

James Kol Rol takes the post of minister of humanitarian affairs while Kosta Manibi becomes minister of investment.

Health Minister Tapita Boutros and Transport Minister Kwal Miang, both southerners, retain their portfolios.

Six southern ministers of state have been added to different posts and two presidential advisors named, according to decrees signed by Beshir.

The reshuffle, which took place late on Tuesday, came hours after a meeting between Beshir and a delegation of southern officials led by SPLM number two Riek Mashar.

Mashar said he and two more of the group's officials had met Beshir to discuss a letter to him from Salva Kiir.

Kiir is also expected to hold talks with Beshir in the next two days, Mashar said.

"The meeting was cordial, and the two leaders will meet soon to discuss the outstanding issues and resolve the crises between the parties triggered by the non-implementation of the CPA and violation of the spirit and equal partnership between the two parties," he said.

Mashar was referring to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended 21 years of war between the Muslim north and mainly Christian and animist south that killed at least two million people and displaced millions more.

On Tuesday, Kiir assured a pro-SPLM gathering in Juba that his group would not go back to war but would pursue the push for full implementation of the peace deal.

He said thousands of northern troops were still in the south despite a CPA deadline for their withdrawal of July 9.

The SPLM's decision to withdraw its 19 ministers and deputy ministers from government presented the first major threat to the peace deal.

The pullout also overshadowed peace talks scheduled for October 27 between Khartoum and rebels from the western region of Darfur, who accuse the army and allied militia of launching a new offensive after four years of civil war.

The planned talks in the Libyan resort of Sirte are the latest international effort to end a conflict in which the United Mations estimates that at least 200,000 people have died.

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