NAIROBI, July 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Sudanese lawmakers have unanimously adopted a new constitution for a six-year interim period, a move that will pave way for ex-rebel leader, John Garang to become the first vice president.

    Stephen Missa Dhunya, a member of parliament for Sudan's Lakes region in West Nile said the first Sudanese charter which lays out freedoms of religion and expression of human rights was passed by over 280 legislators who attended the session on Wednesday.

    "We passed the new constitution on Wednesday. The session was attended by Vice President Ali Osman Taha who urged lawmakers to be tolerant," Dhunya said by telephone from Khartoum.

    "We want to lead the war against poverty, provide better services and spread education. We want to go out to the world give it our best and take the best the world has to offer," Taha reportedly told the lawmakers.

    The legislators also approved all provisions of the constitution which, among other things, provides for a presidential republic with President Omar Al-Bashir staying on as ruler, and Garang becoming president of southern Sudan and first vice president, replacing Taha who will become second vice president in the new setup.

    Garang, head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), is due to arrive on Friday on his first Khartoum visit inmore than two decades to take up his post as first vice president a day later, ushering in a government of national unity that will take office in August in line with the January peace accord.

    Carnival mood has gripped the Khartoum capital to welcome the ex-rebel leader back to Khartoum following a key January peace accord with the Sudanese government.  

    SPLM/A spokesman Yasser Arman said Garang and his 200-member delegation are to meet President Al-Bashir and a similar number of officials from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) upon arrival.

    "After the meeting with President Al-Bashir, Garang will address a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people from north and south Sudan in the capital's main Green Square," Arman said.

    The Saturday swearing in ceremony will be witnessed by several heads of state and senior officials, including US Deputy Secretaryof State Robert Zoelick.

    The event will coincide with the lifting of the 16-year-old state of emergency in north and south Sudan and the release of political prisoners.

    According to the new constitution, the president and first vicepresident can decide to initiate any state of emergency, which would need parliamentary approval.

    The SPLM/A signed an agreement with the government on January 9ending more than two decades of north-south conflict.

    In accordance with the peace deal, the constitution stipulates that general elections will be held four years into the interim period and that prospective contenders must first endorse the agreement.

    Until the polls take place, the NCP will have 52 percent of executive posts and legislative seats and the SPLM/A 28 percent.

    Fourteen out of the remaining 20 percent will go to northern opposition parties, with the remaining six percent to be split among other southern groups.

    Another key point of the deal is self-determination for the south at the end of the six-year interim period.

    The constitution, like the peace deal that paved its way, has been cause for hope for the Sudanese who have suffered for decades due to civil war.

    However the north-south deal did not cover a separate revolt inthe country's western region of Darfur or a smaller conflict in the impoverished east, which has recently escalated with rebel attacks on government forces. Enditem