KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The United States has raised the issue of religious freedom during talks about easing sanctions on Sudan, the new head of the U.S. Agency for International Development said in Sudan on Tuesday.

FILE PHOTO: Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour is seen during a meeting with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (not pictured) in Cairo, Egypt June 3, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Newly appointed head of the agency Mark Green held the talks with senior Sudanese officials as the U.S. government weighs whether to ease or extend the economic sanctions, a decision that must be made by Oct. 12.

“We have asked questions and ... have received assurances,” Green told reporters after a meeting with Sudanese Prime Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh.

While human rights and religious freedom are not conditions for the permanent lifting of some Sudan sanctions, the Trump administration is increasingly raising them as a concern as it seeks to advance relations with Khartoum, which has been under U.S. sanctions for 20 years.

Recently during the unveiling of the State Department’s latest religious freedom report, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called out Sudan for arresting or intimidating Christian clergy and church members, and for demolishing churches and trying to close church schools.

The crack down on religious minorities has stoked fears among Christians that they will not be able to practice their faith in majority-Muslim Sudan.

During his three-day visit to Sudan -- the first by a senior U.S. government official since 2005 -- Green met with various religious organizations, including churches and religious freedom lawyers.

In his meetings on Tuesday, Green said he had acknowledged “meaningful steps” by the government in complying with U.S. demands for easing the sanctions. Among those conditions are improved humanitarian access for aid workers, counter-terrorism cooperation and a resolution of internal conflicts.

“The government is continuing a gradual reversal of long-standing impediments,” Green said, “and I urge the government to accelerate its work in this regard.”

Earlier, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said his country was looking forward to normal ties being restored.

“On our side we look forward for a normalization of our relations with an important country ... the U.S.,” said Ghandour, who has overseen dialogue with Washington on the sanctions.

HOBBLED ECONOMY

Easing the sanctions could suspend a trade embargo, unfreeze assets and remove financial restrictions that have hobbled the Sudanese economy.

The North African country wants to regain access to the global banking system, potentially unlocking badly needed trade and foreign investment. It needs both to cope with an inflation rate of 35 percent and a shortage of foreign currency that has crippled its ability to buy abroad.

A decision on the sanctions was delayed for six months to give Sudan more time to make progress on key demands and to give the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump time to settle in.

Lifting them would be a major turnaround for the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who once played host to Osama bin Laden and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur.

Washington has not weakened its condemnation of Sudan’s tactics in Darfur, and Sudan remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, alongside Iran and Syria.

But Green said if Sudan complied with U.S. demands for the lifting of the sanctions, and protected religious freedom, “it would bring in a new era for a new relationship in which many issues can be taken on.”

Green told Reuters on Monday after visiting North Darfur state that humanitarian access had improved.

In particular, aid workers have been allowed for the first time in seven years into Jebel Marra, a region of Darfur where clashes between the government and rebels persist, according to USAID reports.

The United States first imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997, including a trade embargo and blocking the government’s assets, for human rights violations and terrorism concerns. The United States layered on more sanctions in 2006 for what it said was complicity in the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region.