President leads mourning for Sudanese author Salih

OMDURMAN, Sudan (Reuters) - Mourners led by Sudan's president gathered on Friday for the funeral of Tayeb Salih, one of the most translated Arabic novelists of the 20th century, after his body was flown to Khartoum.

Salih died in London on Wednesday at the age of 80.

More than 1,500 people attended his burial at al-Bakri Cemetery in Omdurman, on the west bank of the Nile opposite Sudan's capital.

Former culture minister Abdel Basset Abdel Maged said Salih had achieved worldwide acclaim in a speech at the funeral attended by ministers and President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

A small group of women paid their respects at the cemetery, an unusual event in Sudan where burials are attended by men.

Some of Salih's best-known works focussed on colonisation and cultural collisions with the West.

The author, who spent much of his working life in Europe, won fame with his 1966 novel "Season of Migration to the North".

(Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz, writing by Andrew Heavens)