AU - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is vital to ongoing peace efforts and should not be arrested, the African Union's top executive said Wednesday (AFP).

"It is important to get peace in Sudan, specially in Darfur, President al- Bashir has to be part of that," Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the new head of the AU commission, told a forum of former African heads of state.

"It is more important to get peace in Sudan than to rush for an arrest."

The meeting attended by seven former presidents -- including Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano, Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Malawi's Bakili Muluzi and Ghana's John Kufuor -- was part of a series of consultations before she takes up her new position.