Sudan's former military ruler Field Marshal Abdel Rahman Suwar al-Dahab has died in hospital in the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh, the Sudanese presidency has announced.

Suwar al-Dahab took power in a military takeover in April 1985 following popular protests against the government of President Col Jaafar Muhammad Numeiri.

He presided over a transitional government and handed power over to an elected parliament in May 1986.

Since then, Suwar al-Dahab, who was born in 1935, has assumed the role of an elder statesman in Sudan.

Many Sudanese remember him as the only military ruler who handed power voluntarily to an elected civilian government.

He will be buried in the Muslim holy city of Medina.