A US official has died after being critically wounded when an embassy vehicle was shot at by unidentified attackers in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
Sudan's interior ministry said that the vehicle was fired on by armed men in another car as it drove through a residential area in western of the city in the early hours of Tuesday.
The Sudanese driver was also killed in the attack.
"The occupants of the vehicle opened fire on the side of the driver who was killed instantly while the other passenger was shot five times in the hand, right shoulder and stomach," the ministry statement said.
The US embassy said that the diplomat was an officer with the US agency for international development.
"A locally employed Sudanese national was killed in the same incident" the embassy said in a statement.
"This afternoon, the American officer succumbed to his injuries and passed away. We are working closely with local authorities to investigate the incident."
The interior ministry identified the American as 33 year-old John Michael Granfield but this was not confirmed by the US embassy.
It was not immediately clear if it was a targeted attack against the USAID official or a random criminal shooting.
The US is the leading international donor to Sudan and has contributed nearly $2.9bn for humanitarian programs in Sudan and eastern Chad since 2004.
Divestment law
The shooting came a day after George Bush, the US president, signed into a law a measure aimed at allowing states, local governments, mutual funds and pension funds to cut investment in companies doing business in Sudan, particularly its oil sectors.
Some 20 US states have initiated divestment efforts because of the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, which has taken some 200,000 lives and displaced more than two million since rebels took up arms against the government in 2003.
"My administration will continue its efforts to bring about significant improvements in the conditions in Sudan through sanctions against the government of Sudan and high-level diplomatic engagement and by supporting the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur," Bush said.
The US president has called the deaths in the Darfur conflict genocide, a charge the Sudanese government has rejected.
On Monday, a joint UN-African Union force took over peacekeeping operations in Sudan's western Darfur province after months of international pressure on Khartoum to allow it to deploy.
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US Embassy in Khartoum