A hijacked Sudanese plane has landed safely in the Chadian capital N'Djamena and all 103 passengers are safe as the Sudanese hijacker requested asylum from the French embassy, an airline official said on January 24.

The Air West domestic Sudanese flight was diverted by an armed Sudanese man at 9 am (0600 GMT) who demanded the Boeing 737 fly onto N'Djamena.

"The plane has landed ... the hijacker was met by the French ambassador and all the passengers are safe," said Ahmed Salih, commercial director of Air West in Sudan.

The domestic Sudanese passenger plane has been hijacked after leaving Khartoum by the unknown gunman who diverted the plane to Chad's capital N'Djamena.

Ahmed Salih, commercial manager of the Air West airline, said the unidentified gunman hijacked the plane with an AK-47 machine gun.

It was not clear how the hijacker got on board the plane with a weapon, but Sudanese security is often lax, especially on internal flights.

In 2004 Eritreans seeking asylum hijacked a plane travelling from Libya to Eritrea and forced it to land in Khartoum airport. Sudan eventually granted the hijackers political asylum.