Khartoum - Nine candidates have been approved to run against President  Omar al-Beshir in Sudan's April 11 polls, the electoral commission said on  Saturday after rejecting three hopefuls.

The presidential vote is to be held in conjunction with parliamentary and  regional elections as part of the troubled African country's first multi-party  ballot since 1986.

The candidates include former premier and Islamist Umma party leader Sadiq  al-Mahdi, who was ousted in 1989 in a military coup led by Beshir, and Yasser  Arman of the southern ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

The remaining candidates belong to smaller parties, and two are independents.

The nominees who were turned down, including Fatima Ahmed Abdelmahmud, the first  woman to attempt to run for the presidency, have a week to contest the  commission's decision.

Potential candidates had been required to gather 15,000 signatures, including  200 from 18 of the country's 25 states.

The elections are taking place as part of a 2005 agreement between the Muslim  north and largely Christian south that ended a 22-year civil war.