KHARTOUM, May 30 Former Sudanese president Gaafar al-Nimeiry, who imposed Islamic rule in Sudan, died on Saturday, the president's office announced. He was 79.

Nimeiry will be buried on Sunday in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, where he was born in January 1930.

The former president came to power in a coup in 1969 with the support of communist and socialist leaders, and was ousted by another coup in 1985.

In 1983, bowing to pressure from the Islamists, he introduced sharia law to Sudan.—AFP