UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was in southern Sudan yesterday in a bid to support a January peace deal that ended 21 years of civil war between Khartoum and southern rebels. On his first visit to southern Sudan as head of the world body, Annan met John Garang, who heads the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement and is soon to be sworn in as the vice president of a national unity government.Annan was greeted at the tiny airstrip in the region's provisional capital Rumbek by the former rebel leader, who gave him two bulls as a welcome present. The UN chief thanked his host for the gift but suggested the bulls should stay in Sudan and be donated to those orphaned and widowed by the war, which was the longest running in Africa. Annan met members of a constitutional convention which is drafting a new charter to set the ground rules for six years of autonomy for the south leading up to a promised referendum on independence. "I urge you to continue in your efforts to complete this essential task in a timely manner," he said.