Russia made an official protesttoday over the detention of a Russian helicopter and itscrew in Sudan, warning the country of "unpleasant" consequencesif they were not freed immediately.
Sudanese authorities seized the Mi-26T transport helicopterlast week in the western town of al-Fashir, about 800 km (500miles) southwest of the capital Khartoum, saying it was on anunauthorised military mission, Russian agencies reported.
Moscow says the helicopter, owned by Russia's Vertikal-Tairline, was under contract to the United Nations and on its wayto join a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic ofCongo.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement it hadsummoned the Sudanese charge d'affaires to demand that hisgovernment release the helicopter and its crew and allow them tocontinue their mission.
"Russia has also made it clear that if they maintain theircurrent intolerant attitude to Moscow, we will have to drawconclusions that will affect relations between Russia and Sudanin a very unpleasant way," the statement said.
Sudanese government officials were not immediately availableto comment.
But the government-owned newspaper al-Anbaa quoted ForeignMinister Mustafa Osman Ismail as saying of the helicopter:"There are some suspicions about its mission and there arequestions about it not following the appropriate procedure."
A U.N. mission has been in Congo since 2001 to monitor aceasefire between warring factions, which has been repeatedlyviolated. A separate French-led international force begandeploying last month to protect civilians from the fighting.