'Technical reasons' blamed for plane crash that killed minister

Khartoum: The crash of a southern Sudanese plane that killed 24 people on Friday, including key members of the government, was "due to technical reasons", a top official told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Gabriel Changson Chan, southern Sudanese minister of information and chief spokesman, said: "We believe the cause of the crash was due to a technical failure with the engine."

Friday's crash killed 21 passengers and 3 crew members, including Justin Yak Arop, a presidential adviser on decentralisation, and Lt General Dominic Dim Deng, the minister overseeing the south's armed forces.

Northern and southern Sudan are in the midst of a process of implementing a 2005 peace agreement ending a civil war between the north and south that lasted 30 years and claimed at least a million lives.

"Although the loss is so great, it will never deter us from the implementation of the peace agreement," Chan said, noting that the peace process continued even after the death in an air crash of southern leader John Garang in July 2005.

The crash occurred in the village of Rumbek. The plane's captain contacted the airport tower to report engine trouble and request an emergency landing. The plane crashed before reaching the airport.