20110118
reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese security forces on Tuesday arrested opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi and eight other party officials after they called for a "popular revolution" if Khartoum did not reverse price rises.

Turabi's arrest comes at a politically sensitive time for the government of President Omar Hassan al Bashir, who stands to lose control over the oil-producing south which last week voted in an independence referendum.

It also comes as Tunisia grapples with fallout from the ouster of its long-time president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled the country on Friday after three weeks of violent unrest sparked by social grievances.

Sudan's opposition threatened on Sunday to take to the streets if the government did not remove its finance minister and dismantle parliament over the decision to raise prices on a range of goods.

"This is criminal - how can they arrest a man who is 78 years old and put him in prison? We are scared for him," Turabi's tearful wife Wisal al-Mahdi told Reuters.

Ben Ali's overthrow in Tunisia has reverberated across the Arab world, raising concerns about stability in other countries in the region which share the same mix of social, economic and political problems.

Sudan's price increases have sparked student protests in the country's northern agricultural heartland and Khartoum.

The country is grappling with a current account deficit and a currency devaluation that is driving up inflation.