KHARTOUM, Aug. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- The Sudanese government early Monday morning announced that First-Vice President John Garang is still missing after he took a helicopter to southern Sudan from Uganda.

Sudanese first vice president John Garang speaks at his first press conference in Khartoum, in this July 20, 2005 file photo. (Reuters)

    Government spokesman Abdul-Basit Sabdarat told the state television that Khartoum has mobilized all concerned sectors to investigate the whereabouts of the missing plane.

    Earlier late Sunday, the TV channel reported that the helicopter carrying Garang has landed safely in southern Sudan, without mentioning where the exact landing place of the plane is.

    However, Sabdarat told the state television early Monday that "there is no new information of Garang's plane."

    The Sudanese government has informed UN Secretary General Kofi Anan about the issue, said the spokesman, adding Sudanese Minister

    of Defense Bakri Hassan Salih also contacted his Ugandan counterpart on the missing plane.

Sudanese First Vice President John Garang boards a helicopter at Entebbe International Airport on his way to meet Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni at his country home in Mbarara, western Uganda, July 29. (Reuters)

    Garang arrived at Uganda on a charter flight on Friday for 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 and the contact with the plane was lost at 6:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) in the day because of bad weather, it was reported.

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

    Garang was sworn in as the first vice-president on July 9 under

    a comprehensive peace deal signed with Khartoum in January that ended 21 years of civil war in the country.

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