KHARTOUM, July 31 (Xinhuanet) -- The helicopter carrying Sudanese First Vice-President John Garang has landed safely in southern Sudan, state television reported on Sunday.

    But the television did not mention where the exact landing place of the plane is.

    The Sudanese government announced earlier on Sunday that Garang was missing after taking a helicopter to southern Sudan from Uganda.

    It was reported that the contact with his plane was lost at 6:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) on Saturday because of bad weather.

    Garang arrived at Uganda on a charter flight on Friday on a two-day visit, during which he held talks with Ugandan President Yuery Museveni at his ranch in Rwakitura, about 300 km southwest of Ugandan capital Kampala.

    Then he left Uganda back home on Saturday on an Ugandan helicopter.

    The Sudanese army had launched a massive search for the aircraft in the wake of the reported missing.

    Garang was sworn in as first vice-president on July 9 under a comprehensive peace deal signed in January that ended 21 years of civil war in the country.

    The war started in 1983 when the Islamist Khartoum government tried to impose Islamic Sharia law on the mainly Christian and animist south.  Enditem