Libya, in Shift, Agrees to Send Arms to Sudan

Libya, in an unexpected change of allegiance, has cut off aid to Sudanese guerrillas and agreed to help arm that nation’s U.S.-backed military, it was reported today.

Libya will supply transport aircraft and surface-to-air missiles to Sudanese forces under a military assistance and training agreement signed over the weekend in Tripoli, the Al Sahafa newspaper quoted Sudan’s Defense Minister Major Osman Abdalla as saying.

The switch puts Libya on the same side of Sudan’s civil war as the United States, until now the Sudanese military’s only supplier. President Reagan has consistently accused Libya and its leader, Moammar Kadafi, of sponsoring international terrorism.

Abdalla, interviewed on his return from the Libyan capital of Tripoli Sunday, refused to disclose the value of the military aid agreement and dismissed any suggestion the accord was a step toward union with Libya.

“Libya has no intention of forming any strategic alliance with Sudan or of interfering in Sudan’s domestic and foreign policies,” Abdalla said.

He said Sudan agreed to the accord after Libya assured the government it had stopped supporting the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the major guerrilla force fighting in the south of the country.