In a dusty suburb of Khartoum, nine-year-old Riyaah patiently awaits her master's return.

Osama bin Laden spent five years in Sudan before he was expelled in 1996, and when he was not busy plotting the downfall of America, he liked to unwind by going riding.

The Saudi-born millionaire was also keen on breeding horses; he imported Arabian stallions to cross with Sudanese mares. Riyaah, "the wind" in Arabic, was the foal of one such cross.

"Osama liked horse racing. He loved to jump on a horse and go for a ride," said a former business associate in Khartoum, Issam el-Turabi. "The only thing he didn't like about the races was the music.

"When they started playing music at the racecourse he would get up and walk out, because he thought music was haram" - forbidden by Islam.

Despite his wealth - while in Sudan, he invested a multimillion pound inheritance in a variety of businesses - Bin Laden preferred a simple life "with his wives and horses," according to former acquaintances.

"Osama bin Laden was a very shy and humble man," Mr Turabi recalled. "A good Muslim. A very nice person. It was only when the Americans got him thrown out of Sudan that he became aggressive, as a reaction."

Riyaah is now being kept by Mr Turabi at a small stables bordering an expanse of waste ground in a middle-class district of the Sudanese capital. Bin Laden's horse spends most of her days in a wire enclosure roofed with thatch to keep off the scorching African sun. Occasionally, she has a chance to stretch her legs with a canter at the equestrian club, a sandy British-built track where races take place every Friday afternoon.

Riyaah was not the only asset Bin Laden left behind. When he was expelled by the Sudanese, under pressure from the US, the government seized businesses thought to be worth £30m.

The web of businesses was strongly suspected to be a front for al-Qaida's financial activities.

Two years after the expulsion from Sudan, Bin Laden became America's most wanted terrorist, for the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Though most ordinary Sudanese condemn the September 11 attacks, the al-Qaida leader retains a degree of affection in a country where public opinion is regularly incensed by the news from Iraq and Palestine.

As Riyaah was brought out for her canter, a stable-hand in a flowing jellaba robe and dark glasses murmured: "If I'd known what he was going to do, I would have gone with him."

Bin Laden is not thought likely to want Riyaah back. "I'm not keeping her for Osama," Mr Turabi said. "Even if he is alive, I don't think he will come back for a horse."