* Economic hurdles ahead after south takes most oil
* Carefully balanced military, Islamist demands
* Appeals to northerners with jovial style
By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM, June 30 (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir&${esc.hash}39;s visit to China, defying an international warrant for his arrest, was typical of a man who has stamped his authority on his country since his 1989 coup.
The circumstances around the trip - in the countdown to the secession of Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s south on July 9 - also showed some of the vulnerabilities that may plague his rule in months to come.
Bashir&${esc.hash}39;s main aim appeared to be to reassure Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s biggest trade partner that its investments will be secure, particularly in oil fields along the north-south border, after Khartoum loses the south and third of Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s landmass.
He may have also been seeking reassurance himself that Beijing&${esc.hash}39;s economic support would not shift too far from Khartoum towards the southern capital Juba, which will control about 75 percent of Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s oil when it becomes an independent state.
Sudan faces rising inflation levels and foreign currency shortages. A mounting and crippling external debt, which has reached almost ${esc.dollar}40 billion. It will no longer have the kind of oil revenues to service its debts.
On top of economic concerns, Bashir faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges he masterminded war crimes in Darfur.
The president arrived in China on Tuesday a day late after his plane had to turn back to Tehran. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said the delay was because of a change to his flight plan over Turkmenistan.
The last minute hitch recalled other hiccups in his travel plans, which analysts say were caused by fears that ICC could succeed in persuading governments to intercept his flight.
Bashir has had to cancel visits to Turkey, Libya and the Central African Republic, after the countries came under pressure from the ICC.
STICK-WAVING DANCES
Such challenges could encourage rivals within his own ruling National Congress Party and his many opponents in Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s peripheries, not least in the south and Darfur to the west.
But Bashir has proved a canny survivor and has become Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s longest-ruling leader.
The son of a farmer from the Nile Valley north of Khartoum, he was a career army officer who rose to the rank of general.
Bashir served at least one tour of combat duty in the south against the rebel Sudan People&${esc.hash}39;s Liberation Army (SPLA) before overthrowing the democratically elected civilian government of former Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi in June 1989.
Inside Sudan, Bashir has cultivated an almost jovial image. His bombastic rhetoric, regular use of colloquial Arabic and stick-waving dance routines at public events have only added to his support in his northern heartlands.
His longevity is also partly down to his ability to appeal in equal measure to the generals and the Islamist hardliners who both played their part in bringing him to power.
The United States, Britain and Norway have offered incentives to the north to pursue a pluralistic, democratic government after secession. Sudan has been offered increased trade, removal from a U.S. list of a state sponsors of terrorism and minimal easing of some U.S. sanctions.
But for Bashir those carrots may not outweigh the internal pressures within Khartoum&${esc.hash}39;s ruling party not to allow space for dissent, which they believe could encourage more secessionist tendencies and weaken their domestic power base.
Some analysts say a Bashir-led north could become a more assertive Islamist state and isolated place - and potentially a disruptive player in the region - after the south leaves. (Editing by Edmund Blair and Alison Williams)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
