Wednesday March 31, 2004 9:46 PM
By MOHAMED OSMAN
Associated Press Writer
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Sudan has detained 10 military officers and seven opposition party members who planned to stage a coup, the defense minister said Wednesday.
Bakri Hassan Salih said state security discovered the group was planning ``acts of subversion on a number of strategic and service establishments'' in the coming days.
``The group was planning to carry out its plot in the coming few days, as a pre-emptive move to abort the current peace process in the country,'' Salih said on state-run television.
He said the officers had been planning the coup since the middle of last year, assisted by the opposition Popular Congress, whose leader was arrested earlier Wednesday.