KHARTOUM: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir returned home from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, an AFP reporter said, after Bashir had vocal cord surgery in the kingdom.

The president arrived at the airport in Khartoum about 4:15 pm (1315 GMT), the reporter said.

Bashir, 68, "underwent a successful surgical operation in the vocal cords," the official SUNA news agency reported late Tuesday.

The leader had been recovering in the Saudi kingdom after leaving hospital there on November 7, following his second minor surgery in less than four months, official media reported.

Known for his sharp-tongued public speeches, Bashir had been relatively quiet in recent weeks, making his fewer orations more restrained.

But on Thursday a tired but healthy looking Bashir appeared on television and spoke for about 15 minutes in a return to his typical fiery rhetoric.

Government-owned Blue Nile TV said the broadcast was recorded that day at Sudan's embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In late October, Bashir's press secretary denied rumours the president was sick and said he underwent minor surgery during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which was observed from mid-July to mid-August.

Bashir seized power in a 1989 military coup which overthrew a democratically elected government and established an Islamist regime.

He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Sudan's far-western Darfur region where a rebellion began in 2003.